Elizabeth Armstrong at the dumping ground
by CrazyDiamondLFM
Summary: Ellie Armstrong wants to forget about everything that's happened and move on with her life, and Elm tree seemes like the perfect place to do that, it's not always that easy though, especially when past events aren't over yet. But will a certain boy be able to help her. I suck at summaries, would be great if you did read it though. Rated T for violence, swearing and romance. OC/Liam
1. 1 Arrival at Elm Tree

**Authors Note. Okay, so I've already put this story up once, but that was a few months ago, and I wasn't really happy with the way I'd written it so I never updated it. I've deleted ****that one now, and I'm starting again, so hopefully this one will go better c: Any reviews are useful, good or bad, but it you don't like it tell me why so I can improve it, don't just complain.**

I sat in the back of Brett's car watching the houses go past the window. I'd never been in this part of town before. I used to live on the estate. It's only a few minutes from here, but it's a completely different place. All the houses there are tiny and falling apart. Their full of damp and the windows are boarded up. Most of the shops are burnt down or shut down, and the playground is all smashed up and covered in graffiti, no kids go there anymore.

But here it's different, I've never seen anything like it before, the shops are open and inviting, and the playground is full of kids playing with their parents. All the houses are massive; it's like nothing I've ever seen before, except on TV.

When I was first taken into care about three weeks ago, I stayed with this woman called Sheila for a few days. She lived in a big house out in the country, it was nice there as well, but it was only temporary foster care. Then I went to stay with a really nice couple called the Nickerson's. I actually quite liked it there, they had two little boys called Jack and Harry who I used to play with after school. But staying at the Nickerson's was only temporary as well, until my social worker Brett could find me somewhere else to go.

We pulled up in front of a big white house with a red door. "Come on then Ellie. This is it, Elm Tree House." Brett said to me in a voice that made me feel about six. I rolled my eyes and then got out of the car. He went to knock on the door and I pulled my stuff out of the boot. There wasn't a lot of it, just one bin bag, and most of that was the stuff the Nickerson's had bought me.

It had few possessions in it, my very scanty wardrobe that was a mixture of threadbare second hand clothes and the new clothes from New Look and other nice shops from one of my shopping trips with the Nickerson's. There are a few photos, back from when I was little, but we didn't have many, and there's also my favourite book, a midsummer night's dream. We read it at school once and I fell in love with it, I begged my mum to buy it for me, but she never did, so in the end I just stole a copy from school.

A balding man in his late forties answered the door with a smile. "You must be Elizabeth. It's nice to meet you." He said to me, holding out his hand to take the bin bag off me. "The office is just down the hall, if you'd like to step in there while I have a few words with Brett."

"Actually, it's Ellie. Only my dad ever called me Elizabeth." I said curtly, and then I slipped past him, ignoring his offer to take my bin bag. It was all I had left, I wasn't going to give it to some guy I'd only just met.

Just inside there was a girl who looked about my age with blue streaks in her hair and another younger girl wearing all pink and lots of jewellery, with long brown hair. "Hi!" Said the younger girl, a great big smile covering her face. "You must be Elizabeth, Mike said you were coming. You're the same Age as Elektra you know." She pointed at the girl with blue hair, who gave me a sort of smile.

"It's Ellie." I said. The girl smiled at me again and then started babbling on about other people in the care home. I caught a bit of it, but mostly I was trying to listen into what Brett and the other man were saying, I assumed that he was Mike. I caught bits of it. "She's difficult…. Withdrawn…. signs of depression…. She'll need her own room if that's possible…. So you've read her file? Good, yes I realise there may be complications…" I scowled, I was so sick of people talking about me like that.

"Your Elizabeth, yeah?" A plump woman said to me from behind Carmen. Her accent and features made me think she'd originated from the West Indies. She had kind eyes and her smile made me feel welcome, it reminded me of the smile the Nickerson's had given me when I first showed up there, but I still didn't feel like I belonged here.

"She says her name is Ellie." Carmen butted in before I could even say anything. Gina laughed a little, and I smiled weakly.

"I'm Gina, come on Sam. We'll go into the office, yeah." She said, steering me towards the room at the other end of the corridor. There were three desks inside the office, at one of them was sat a girl in her very early twenties, with straight black hair. She smiled at me as I sat down on a chair Gina pointed out to me.

"This is Tracy." Gina introduced me to the girl who gave me a warm smile.

"Pleased to meet you." Tracy said. I opened my mouth to say the same, but then the man, who I figured must be mike, and Brett walked in. Mike unlocked a filing cabinet and put a square red folder in it that had my name on it, and then he sat down at his desk and smiled at me.

"Hi Ellie, it's good to meet you." He said, I nodded back at him. He began the welcoming speech, he probably chucked a few rules in there as well, I don't know, I drifted off as soon as he said " Welcome to Elm Tree. I was snapped back to reality by Brett poking me in the back.

"We hope you'll be very happy here at Elm Tree. If you have any problems, any at all, then come straight to Gina, Tracy or me and we'll do everything we can to sort it out." Mike continued, unaware of my lack of concentration. "Now you've got a choice, we can put you in Toby's old room, or you can share with Elektra. It's up to you."

Brett interjected before I could say a word. "I think it would be better if she has her own room."

I scowled a little, I hated having decisions made for me, even though I thought the idea of sharing with someone I didn't know was awful. "Is that okay with you Ellie?" Mike asked me with a smile.

"Yeah, sure." I said vaguely.

"Okay. Well we've enrolled you at the nearest school because your old school is a little too far away, and Brett said you'd be glad of the change anyway." He said. I was slightly taken aback by that, but at the same time kind of happy, everyone at Saint Agatha's knew what had happened, the teasing was awful. Still, as kind as they were, I felt a little overwhelmed, being bombarded with all this information all at once.

Gina seemed to realise this, as she put a hand on my shoulder and said "Do you want to meet the other children?"

I shrugged, didn't make much difference anyway, I didn't plan on staying here long if I could help it. I don't want to be just another care kid. "Okay then, Tracy do you want to take her through to the living room. Then show her where her bedroom is, I need to speak to Gina about a few things." Mike said. Tracy nodded and I rolled my eyes but followed her anyway. What is it with social workers, there always saying that, telling me to step outside so that they can talk about me. If there's something that really annoys me about Brett it's that he thinks he has the right to poke his nose into my business even though he doesn't really have a clue about me.

Tracy introduces me to the other kids, mostly they seem quite nice. I mutter a few hellos' back but I'm not really paying much attention. A few names stick in my head, a curly haired boy called Gus who writes rapidly in a notebook, a boy called Johnny dressed all in blue, a little boy called Harry with a giraffe he calls Jeff and a girl called tee who sticks close too Johnny.

The room obviously used to be a boy's room, the walls are blue and the carpet is a little muddy. The only furniture is a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a bedside table. I catch sight of my face in a mirror that's hanging on the wall. My long straggly brown hair hangs limply down my back; I don't think I've ever had it cut for as long as I can remember. My face I pale and drawn and there are still some lingering bruises visible. My eyes are a light blue colour; same as my mum's, people have always said I look a lot like her.

I sit down gingerly on the bed, my precious bin bag on the floor next to me. "You can decorate it however you like. We'll buy some paint this weekend, any colour you want." Tracy says, gesturing to the blue walls and giving me a smile. "You could do it in purple, or red, or whatever."

"It's fine." I say quickly. "Honestly, my old room was blue as well." I sigh a little as I think of my old room, it used to be a horrible shade of green, and then one day my dad said I could decorate it any way I wanted. I was only six, so I told him I wanted it to look like the sky, so he went out and bought me a whole load of blue, yellow and white paint, and then helped me paint the room sky blue. He was supposed to paint clouds and a sun on it, but he just never really got round to it.

Tracy sits down next to me. "It's not so bad here you know. It can be scary, the first time you're in a care home, but you got lucky, Elm Tree's one of the best." She says slowly, in a soothing voice, with a big smile. "I used to be in care as well, I know what it's like."

"Thanks. But really I'm okay." I said curtly. It annoys me a little that just because she's been in care as well she can sympathise with me. I've only been in care for three weeks, so I hardly know what it's like, and I doubt she has a backstory anything like mine, everybody is different as far as I'm concerned.

"Okay, well if you need any help you know where I am." She says in an annoyingly bright voice. She stands up and gives me one last smile before leaving the room. I lie back on the bed and put my earphones in, turning the music right up and closing my eyes. I concentrate on the lyrics as best as I can, if I think enough about the music, maybe I'll be able to forget about everything else.


	2. 2 First day

**Authors note: I've decided to make it so the kids don't leave the dumping ground till they're eighteen, even though I know in real life and in the TV show they leave at sixteen, but hey, this is fan fiction, we can do what we like :)**

"Dinnertime!" I hear somebody shout from downstairs. I assume it must be Tracy, because it's a woman's voice, but it doesn't have Gina's thick accent. A few seconds after the call, the house erupts, sounding like a stampede, as all the children starting running downstairs for dinner. I simply roll my eyes and turn my music up louder, I'm not hungry and I don't much fancy making small talk with all those kids I don't know.

After a few minutes my door bursts open, "Shit." I say in shock, as the sudden movement makes me jump. I sit up quickly and pull my earphones out, music still blaring, and then I turn to look over at the door. It's Tracy, looking not too pleased. I scowl at her, "Aren't we supposed to have like privacy or whatever when we're in our rooms."

"I did knock Ellie." She says simply. I shrug a little; I mustn't have heard her because of my earphones. "You can't swear round here you know, too many little kids." I roll my eyes and lye back down on the bed. "Anyway, it's dinner." She says, the glare has gone and been replaced with a fake smile. That's another thing I hate about social workers.

"I know." I say simply, putting one of my earphones back in. "I'm not hungry. I had a big lunch before I came." I lie competently; mum always did say I was good at lying. Tracy seems to swallow my white lie, but she's still not giving up. "You should come down anyway, get to know the other kids. Elektra and Frank is the same age as you." I ponder this for a moment, Elektra seemed kind of cool, but also distant, Frank seemed nice as well and all the other kids, but mostly they were all too young, and I just wasn't in the mood.

I shake my head lightly and then feign a yawn. "Actually I'm really tired, I was kind of nervous last night about coming here, so I didn't get any sleep." I lie again. Tracy gives me a kind smile and then nods, but she doesn't seem completely okay with it. "Thanks Tracy." I say with a huge fake smile plastered across my face. She seems happy with this so she leaves the room to go downstairs, shutting the door behind her. I think I should be an actress.

I lie there for a few minutes, before reluctantly getting up and starting to unpack. I put my limited wardrobe away and then put any other little things on the desk. The room still looked depressingly bare, so I made a mental note to find some things to stick on the walls. Then I began to rifle through to clothes until I found a pair of boy shorts and a tank top. I pulled them on and then crawled into my new bed.

The bedding was blue as well, and it had that just been cleaned but very old smell to it. I made another mental note to ask them if I could have some new bedding, the idea of sleeping in someone else's was a little weird. I put the earphones back on and flicked through the songs until I found something that wasn't too upbeat, but more relaxing, and then I closed my eyes and let myself drift off into subspace, my dreams littered with the lyrics of King of Leon and The Killers.

The bliss of sleep didn't last long though. I was woken up in the morning by the shouts and loud thumping's of children. I groaned and rolled over, I was getting used to it now, after living at the Nickerson's for two and a half weeks, but it was a far cry from the dead silence I was used to back at home. If my parents were at home, they would usually sleep for hours after I'd left for school.

In an attempt to block out the noise I pulled a pillow over my head, although it didn't work very well. The kids were all getting ready for school, and they weren't being quiet about it either. I didn't have to start at the school until the next day; Gina and Mike were trying to let me settle in or something first. I made a mental note to myself to avoid them at all costs in case they tried to talk to me about stuff.

Tracy must have told them I was tired, because nobody came up to bother me until well after the kids left, but at half ten the inevitable happened. I heard a knock on my door, so I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I heard the creek of the door as it swung open and then Gina's voice disturbed the silence. "Ellie, are you okay? It's time to get up, yeah?"

I groaned, and then made a show of rubbing my eyes, yawning and stretching out. Gina smiled at me through the darkness, and then switched on the light switch. I blinked, genuinely blinded by the light, and then mumbled "mornin' Gina" In a sleepy voice.

She laughed a little, and then told me to get dressed and come down for breakfast. After a few minutes I slipped out of bed, and then switched the light off out of habit, because back at home dad had always said to leave them off to save money. Then I pulled the curtains apart so that sunlight streamed into the room. I smiled a little and then padded over to my wardrobe.

I didn't have an awful lot of clothes to choose from, but in the end I just went for some tan tights, denim shorts that used to be jeans but I had to cut them when you could see my ankle's, and a very old AC/DC tee shirt that used to my dad's. He gave it to me when it got too small for him, but it's way too big for me, so I cut off the sleeves a while back and I tuck it into my shorts. Then I pulled on my new union Jack converses and a grey jacket that the Nickerson's bought me.

I took a deep breath, and then opened the door and went downstairs. I found the kitchen easily enough, Gina was already there, putting shopping into various cupboards. I gave her a half-smile and then asked her what was for breakfast. "Well there's some toast left from this morning, but it will be cold." She said with a small laugh. "But there's some cereal in that cupboard over there, yeah?" She said, pointing to a cupboard in the corner.

I opened the cupboard and then gingerly pulled out some cornflakes. I poured a meagre amount into a bowl and then topped it up with milk. "You can have sugar if you like." Gina said passing me a pot. I smiled at her but shook my head and sat down at the table, Gina raised her eyebrows a little, but let it pass and continued unpacking her bags.

"So Ellie, your settling in alright, yeah?" She asked me, slipping into a seat beside me with a cup of tea in her hands. I had to work to contain my groan, I knew this was going to happen. "If you have any problems with anything, then you know where I am yeah? And Mike and Tracy too?"

I nodded non-committedly and continued to spoon cornflakes into my mouth. I was already beginning to feel a little sick from eating so soon after I'd woken up, but I forced the rest of the mulch down anyway, because I knew Gina would think something was up if I didn't eat it all, especially as there hadn't been a lot to start with.

"The kids here are great as well, not a single bad one out of them all." She continued with that over enthusiastic smile I've become accustomed to over the past few weeks from social-workers. "We really want you to be happy here Ellie, and we're going to support you in that." She concluded after a few minutes.

"Thanks Gina, much appreciated." I said, with the biggest smile I could muster. Then I bit my lip a little before asking the next question. "Would you mind if I went out for a bit, had a look round. I won't go far."

Gina's smile faltered for a moment. "Well I don't know if that's a good idea." She said, clearly struggling to give me a reason why. I smiled at her again and she sighed, "Clear it with Mike, yeah? He's in the office."

I nodded and then slipped out of my chair and strolled down the hallway till I found the office door. It was ajar and I could see Mike's back, he was sat at his desk sorting out paperwork. I saw my folder open on his desk, and I bit my lip. I was itching to have a look inside of it, to see what Brett and the other's had written about me, but that was for another time, right now I had to handle the matter at hand.

I hesitated a little and then knocked on his door, Mike swung round in his swivelling chair and smiled at me before quickly closing my folder. "Ellie, come in." He gestured to a chair that I gingerly perched on the end of and then waited for me to start speaking.

"Ermm, Mike, I was wondering if it would be okay If I went out for a bit. Just for a bit, I sort of know the area, one of my friends used to live here, so I won't get lost. You have my number, and, well, I just want to have a look round." I blurted out nervously, beginning to ramble as I saw his face falter at my request.

"Well okay, but don't go far, and I want you back by two, at the latest." He still seemed unsure, but then his face calmed a little. "Here's my number, call me every hour, so I know you're okay." I nodded and then rolled my eyes as soon as I'd left the office, God, what did he think I was going to do in a little English suburb. Then it dawned on me, he thought I was going to bolt. I'm not saying that I won't run, I'm fairly sure I could look after myself, but I haven't decided yet, and I'd have to gain their trust first or I wouldn't get five miles.

The town was nice and peaceful, and boring. I strolled around for about an hour, I went to the shops, the park and even to the woods, at twelve o'clock I called Mike to tell him I was okay, and then I headed off towards the estate. I knew I wasn't supposed to go there, but I wanted to see my friends. It was only a half hour walk, so I figured I could spend an hour with them before I'd have to leave to be back for two.

I'd never walked it before, and I got lost twice and had to ask for directions, but it only added an extra ten minutes on to the journey. I headed over to the old park, and leaned on the gate, scanning the playground for familiar faces

"Ellie?" Someone shouted from the swings. I smiled as I saw Alicia, Donny and a few of the other usual skivers. I smiled at them and ran over, laughing as I hugged Alicia. "Aww Ellie, we've all missed you like soo much. There's been like a bunch of rumours going round about you, I had to punch Nathan in the face when he told everyone you killed your mum and got sent to Juvie." She babbled with a laugh, then she paused and looked me squarely in the face. "Where have you been Ells? I mean, you didn't actually kill your mum did you?" She asked, a curious look in her eyes.

I nibbled my lip a little and then gave a shaky laugh, "Course not, look I'll ermm, tell you later, okay Lis." I said, fully aware of everybody's eyes on me.

"Yeah, cool, I'll ring you." Alicia said, letting it go and then changing the subject, much to the annoyance of all the other nosy kids. I sat down next to Donny and then smiled sweetly at him, he rolled his eyes and then passed me the plastic bottle he was holding. I smiled again and took a swig, I couldn't tell what it was, probably some sort of cheap Alco pop, but it tasted good. It felt so right to be sitting here with Donny, Alicia and the others, chatting and drinking, as if nothing had ever happened.

Time passed without me even realising, I got talking to a girl called Dylan who I'd never met before, and she gave me her number along with some beer, but when I went to put her number into my phone my eyes caught the time. I winced a little, it was ten to two, and I hadn't called Mike at one.


	3. 3 Trouble

**Author's note: Thank you to the people who reviewed the last chapter, It put me in a really good mood and made me want to write this. Can't believe I'm updating twice in twenty four hours, it may be a record for me :)**

Time passed without me even realising, I got talking to a girl called Dylan who I'd never met before, and she gave me her number along with some beer, but when I went to put her number into my phone my eyes caught the time. I winced a little, it was ten to two, and I hadn't called Mike at one.

I gulped a little and sprang up from beside Donny, and then I shrugged and sat back down. What did I even care, I wasn't going to bust my gut to get back to Elm Tree in time. This was where I belonged, right here, Woodrush estate, in the playground that had been deemed unsafe by the council, with my friends. These were the people who really cared about me, not a bunch of social workers who thought they knew what was best for me just because they had a few qualifications, and only gave a shit because they got paid by the government.

I decided I didn't care.

I continued chatting to Dylan, after entering her number into my phone, and then, after I started to get a little tipsy, I leant on Donny's shoulder and he rested his head on mine. He smelt nice, like coffee and cigarettes. I continued to chat to Alicia and the others, and she bubbled away as if I'd never been gone. Yes, this was definitely were I belonged, it may be skanky and full of chavs, but it was where I grew up.

I sighed a little at that thought. I might have happy memories of bunking off school with my friends in the park, drinking and smoking till our pockets were empty, but my memories of the thirty third flat in the second block were far from happy. I felt my eyes instinctively drawn to it, I could see the windows from here, and the balcony where mum used to smoke. When I was really little I used to play on the balcony, Alicia would come over and we'd pretend like we were flying, but that was before dad stopped my friends coming round.

Alicia must've followed my gaze because she sat down next to me and whispered in my ear. "It's all boarded up now; they took your dad away in a police car. I was so worried about you, I even went to school to see if you'd show up, and maybe you'd just moved someplace else, but you never did. I thought something had happened to you, I thought your dad had…" She trailed off, the worry apparent in her eyes. I gave her a reassuring smile and told her that I'd explain everything to her later.

Our conversation was interrupted by my phone blaring out the lyrics to dirty little secret while buzzing loudly. I frowned and pulled my phone out of my pocket. It was Mike, I knew it would be, but I felt like I should check anyway. I pressed the reject button and then switched off my phone. Alicia raised her eyebrows, "Who's Mike?" She asked.

"Oh, just some guy. I owe him a tenner, he keeps ringing to ask for it back." My skill at lying was once again coming in useful. "Alicia, can I stay at yours tonight?" I ask her, my voice shaking a little, because if she says no then I don't know where I'll go. I can't go back to the home, not now. I know they'll catch up with me eventually, but it'll be worth it to have a few more days with my friends.

Alicia doesn't let me down of course, she smiles at me warmly, nods and then takes another swig of the Alco Pop. I grin, perfect, I'll be in trouble when the police eventually catch me, but bedding down at Alicia's is always fun, especially when her mum is there. She'd one of those lax, would-be-hippy mum's who grows flowers everywhere and pretty much lets Alicia do what she likes. She'd also been on several marches to legalise drugs, and get rid of the royal family, any crazy thing like that. She'll tell stories about when she was younger and she used to chain herself to trees and houses that were going to be knocked down.

I smiled as I thought of Alicia's mum, so lost in old memories of her that I barely noticed when half of the group stood up. "Where are they going?" I asked, when I finally noticed them leaving.

"Getting more Booze I think, or maybe going home, it's almost the end of school. They'll be back in about an hour." I laughed a little, remembering how I used to do the same, going home at half three so it looked like I'd just gotten in from school, I'd yell hello to my mum and dad if they were in, and then chuck my bag on the floor. I'd fix myself a quick snack if there was any food, and then get changed and head back to the park. It all seemed so pointless now, I doubt my parents would've even cared if I had skipped school.

We go over to the grassy area by the swings, its more mud than grass though, and there are blackened spots were people have had bonfires, we manage to find a nice, soft, dry space though, and we lie back on the grass, staring up at the sky and absorbing the rays of sunlight. Alicia sighs angrily, "I really shouldn't be doing this." She moans. "I burn soo easily, yanno'." I laugh in unison with Donny and the others.

"I'm glad I tan." I say with a small laugh. My mum had lovely skin, a sort of milky white that tanned beautifully in the summer, and my dad was deeply tanned all year round. My skin is a sort of mix, lightly tanned skin that goes a nice shade of brown in the summer. Of course it's not exactly summer now, it's early October, and this will probably be the last bit of sun we get. The leaves are already starting to turn red and fall away from the trees, not that there are many trees on the Woodrush estate.

I lay there on the grass for a while, sipping on cheap Alco pop's and beer, taking the occasional drag of the ciggy Donny has lit, singing along with Alicia to her iPod. After a while the light begins to dim, only ever so slightly, not so you'd really notice unless you'd been sitting in the same place for hours, I suppose the days must be getting shorter now.

"ELLIE!" Somebody calls my name sharply, dragging me from my thoughts of winter and autumn and making me sit up suddenly, the earphone stuck in my right ear falls out and the world sounds eerily silent until my name is shouted again. "ELLIE." My head follows the noise to see Tracy stood by the gate glowering at me. Her car is parked over on the road, the door left hanging open, and I almost smirk. Leaving your door open is a sure fire way to get your car nicked round here.

"Get in the car! NOW!" She yells. I gulp and stand up, pondering my options from here. _Run,__ or__ get in the car, run,__ or__ get __in the car, run,__ or__ get in the car. R__un_. I twist round so I'm facing the opposite direction, and my heart sinks when I realise she's next to the only gate. She isn't a complete idiot I suppose. I sigh heavily, I could climb over the fence I guess, but if she didn't catch me she'd have the police on my tail within seconds, I wouldn't get five minutes. I sigh heavily, _g__et in the car._

I feel my heart sink even further as I make my way too the car, Tracy sticks close buy too me in case I run again, but I'm not stupid. I get in the back of her car and mouth to Alicia "I'll call you later." The last thing I see before Tracy drives off is Alicia and Donny's completely stunned faces.

I sigh and slump in my seat. "Put your seatbelt on." She says. She doesn't sound that angry, annoyed maybe, but not particularly pissed off like you'd expect. I roll my eyes, yet another obsession that social workers have, seatbelts. "Are you okay?" She asks me, she's clearly trying to keep her voice even, but I can hear anger and worry in it.

"I was, till you showed up." I mutter with a shrug. I don't think she hears me though so I just nod my head and continued my dead-pan stare out of the window. Tracy pulls over and dials a number in her phone. I notice her locking the doors before we stop though. God, how stupid does she think I am, bolting right now, in daylight, when I'd have no more than ten minutes head start on the police, that would be idiotic.

"Hi." She says to the person on the other end of the line. "Yeah, I've found her… She seems okay…No she hasn't…Call Mike to tell him, I'll be home in ten minutes." She snaps the phone shut and then starts up the car again. I didn't understand the conversation too much, because I couldn't hear what the other person was saying, but I gathered that it was about me.

Tracy didn't say anything for the rest of the journey, but she kept looking in the wind mirror to look at me, I don't know if she was making sure I was alright, or just checking to make sure I was still there. When we got to Elm tree she steered me into the house and towards the office. I ignored the stares from the other kids that practically drilled holes into my skin they were so intense.

When we reached the office Tracy didn't even bother knocking, she just marched me straight in and told me to sit down, then she leaned against the door. I took a deep breath and counted to five, then I smiled at Gina and Mike, their faces mirrored each other, both looking as angry as Tracy had done back at the park. "I was going to come back, I just…" Mike held up his hand to stop me and then looked at Tracy for an explanation.

"She was in a park over on the Woodrush estate. She was with a whole bunch of kids her age, they had alcohol and cigarettes. She didn't try to run when I found her, she just got in the car." She explained to Mike, before giving me one of those; I'm-sorry-but-it's-my-job looks. I sigh and then turn back to Mike and Gina, their faces are harder to read now, they look, if possible, angrier than before, but also more worried. "What happened?" Mike asked me, his voice was even and level, but it was clear he just wanted to make sure he was okay before he began his lecture about keeping safe and whatnot.

I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes, social workers don't really give a shit. What is it people say, if you can't act, you teach. Well I reckon if you can't do anything, you be a social worker, I mean as if these people deal with annoying, little, snot-nosed kids every day for the fun of it. My mum's words echoed in my head from a few years ago. _Don't__ never let 'em know how you're __really feelin__'__, they'll take you away just so they can feel like they'__re doin'__ some good, but they won'__ n__ever understand you proper, tha__t__'s__ wha'__ family's for._She said it just before I got my first social worker seven years ago, I was nine, and social services and gotten a tip off from school because there were some bruises on my arms.

I figured mum was right at the time, because she grew up in care and she hated it. She used to tell me horror stories about her old care home from when she was little. Those few weeks when I had a social worker were brilliant, mum always made sure there was food around, and dad even stopped thumping mum for a bit. Then they closed my case, said I wasn't at risk, my parents stayed like that for a while, kind and caring, like a proper family, and then dad started drinking again and mum went back to how she used to be. That's when I realised social services would be no good, it was just like mum always said.

I gave them a fake smile. "I'm really sorry, I was just with my friends, and I lost track of time. My phones run out of charge. I'm really sorry, it won't happen again, I promise." I said, in an apologetic voice. Mike and Gina exchanged looks and then he leaned back in his chair and ran his hand through his hair. "I was just happy to see them; it's been a while, yanno. I promise I won't do it again."

"Were you drinking?" Mike asked me, giving me a questioning look. I sneak a side-glance at Tracy, but I already know she'll tell Mike the truth if I lie to him, and then he'll stop believing other things I say.

"Yes, but only a little, and it weren't high in units." I say quickly. Mike frowns, his eyebrows meet in the centre and form a tight know and then he picks up my file.

"Smoking?"

I hesitate. "Maybe a drag or two."

He puts my folder down and leans toward me. "Are you okay Ellie?" His brown eyes are full of concern, and he gives me a small smile, one that supposed to say–you-can-trust-us-you-know.

But I give him the same answer I gave my first social worker. "Yeah course, I've had a great day."

Mike sighs. "Okay then Ellie. I hope you realise it was very careless of you to go running off like that. It's a good job Tracy found you or who knows what might have happened. I also hope you realise that drinking and smoking are both dangerous and can get you in serious trouble, not to mention they're illegal. If I ever catch you drinking or smoking again then you will be in a lot of trouble. I'm also going to have to ask Tracy to search your room to make sure you don't have anything up there." This was it, the lecture about my being careless and irresponsible. I was fairly sure it would go on for a long time so I leaned back in my chair and figured I'd just wait it out and then I could go and sleep.

"All this will have to go on your record you know. Also, you shouldn't be going back to the estate, it's dangerous there and also very far away. I trusted you today, and now you're going to have to earn that trust back if you want to be allowed out on your own again." Mike finished off after about five minutes. I had nodded and agreed in the right places and now I thought it was finally over. "Right now you go can upstairs, your grounded until I see fit, also Tracy could you search her room please." Tracy nodded grimly and opened the door for me.

"Oh, and Ellie?" Mike said as I was almost through the door. "Your uniform is upstairs. You'll need to be up bright and early tomorrow." He almost laughed, but couldn't quite manage it. I smiled at him and then made my way upstairs with Tracy right behind me. When we reached my room I sat on my bed with a sigh while Tracy gave me an awkward look and began to look through my things.

"I'm sorry about this." She said with a small sigh. "But it is common policy to do room searches if we think someone has something that could be dangerous." I smirked, alcohol and fags aren't dangerous, if I'd spent all day doing drugs then I could understand the worry, but a smoke or two and a few sips of an Alco pop was hardly cause for concern.

I sighed and lay back on my bed, I was tempted to get out my iPod, but I knew it would be rude and I was already in her bad books. Instead I waited for her to finish and then smiled at her as she left. I changed into my PJ's and plodded down the hall to the girls bathroom to brush my teeth and stuff. It was only eight, but I felt kind of sleepy, and like Mike had said, I needed to be up early tomorrow. I went back to my room and slipped into bed, and then I sighed a little and pushed my earphones in. I hummed along to Never Shout Never for a while, before I fell asleep to the sound of Christofer Drew's voice.


	4. 4 School

**Authors note: Thanks to everybody who reviewed the last chapter. And to everybody who has put it on their story alert list or favourites list, really means a lot to me. It put me in such a writing mood, so I wrote another chapter :L hope you like it. :)**

I blinked a little and then sat up. My clock said six AM, and I couldn't think why I'd woken up so early. I blinked again and then sighed; bright rays of sunlight were streaming in through the window. I must've forgotten to close the curtains last night, the light had woken me up. I yawned widely and then rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

I didn't feel tired, probably because I went to sleep at a ridiculously early time last night. I slipped out of bed and almost stepped on my iPod, it must've fallen off my bed while I was asleep. I bent down to pick it up, winding the earphones around it before placing it back on my bed. I went over to the window and pushed hard on the latch so it swung open. I smiled as the birdcalls of the dawn chorus.

Dawn was my favourite time of the day, when I could be bothered getting up for it. All you could hear was the birds, there weren't any cars on the roads or people talking. If you were lucky you could watch the sun rising on the horizon, and the first droplets of light spilling into your view.

I smiled to myself and then picked up my copy of a Midsummer Night's Dream and sat in bed for a while reading. At about seven-ish the rest of the house start waking up, I could hear children shrieking and shouting on the ground floor, and Mike and Gina trying to organise breakfast for them all. At about ten past Tracy knocked on my door to tell me to get up for school. She didn't come in, but I could tell from her voice that I wasn't off the hook yet after yesterday.

I took the uniform out of my wardrobe and laid it out on my bed. It was, needless to say, hideous. The pleated skirt was tartan, green with little purple and grey lines, the jumper was a light grey and the tie was also grey with the school emblem on in it in red. Frank's tie was grey with yellow, so I figured the colours must be years or houses or something. The blazer was also green, but there was no way in hell I was going to wear it, I'd end up looking like a grape.

I pulled on a plain white shirt and left the top two buttons undone, then I put my tie on loosely, so it hung low around my neck. Then I pulled on the disgusting skirt, it was resting on my hips, but still it went past my knees. I sighed and began to roll up the hem until it was just above my knees. I pulled the jumper on and looked in the mirror. I sighed, despite my best efforts I still looked like a posh kid.

They were never too fussed about uniform at Saint Aggie's, probably more worried about the fact that hardly anyone ever showed up for school. The result was that we rarely looked particularly neat, and we had an on-going war with all the polished kids from, Saint Andrews. It felt weird knowing that I would be a Saint Andrews kid now, the sort of person my friends would yell at if they saw me in the street.

I sighed and then added a few extra things to the uniform, I exchanged the jumper for a cardigan of the same colour and then pushed the sleeves up and put a few bracelets on. I pulled on grey socks followed by my new converse, and then I pinned three badges to the uniform. The first was a CND badge that Alicia's mum had given me a few years ago, the second was a professor green badge that said 'Don't piss me off.' In huge black letters and the third was a present Donny gave me a few years ago that said 'I look better in green.' I smiled a little, now I had culture, music and humour represented on my jumper. The uniform looked distinctly more me now, especially after I pulled on my new jacket.

I put on some more make-up and then headed downstairs. I realised as I entered the kitchen that this was the first time I'd ever been to a meal with the rest of them. It was just as chaotic and rowdy as I'd imagined it to be. The kids were leaning over the table and spilling things everywhere. I grimaced a little and leant against the counter. No way was I sitting down with them, I'd end up getting covered in milk or something worse.

I was glad I wasn't the only one in the room with this hideous uniform on. There are three boys and a girl wearing it as well. The girl is Electra, I know that, and I think the boys are called Frank, Johnny and Nick? No Rick. All the other kids are wearing a red one, which must be the uniform for the local primary school. The green of the uniform clashed horribly with Electra's blue hair, and I had to work not to smirk. Johnny was clearly a year seven, his uniform was brand new, and just a little too big for him.

"Ellie?" Somebody said from behind me. I looked round to see Mike smiling at me. "I'm going to give you a lift this morning, you won't know the way. I need to speak to the head anyway. Walk home with Frank and the others, okay?" He asked, and then he gave me a don't-you-dare-try-anything-today look.

"Yeah, no problem." I say with a smile and a nod. I've got to build up their trust again, if I've got any chance of being able to see my friends again, they have to trust me.

"You not eating?" He asks, nodding towards the table. "Only you can't have had much to eat yesterday." I groan inwardly, Brett must have told them how little I ate at the Nickerson's, which is completely unfair, I mean I was hardly going to be in the mood to eat was I?

I nod and pick up a piece of toast, chewing on it slowly until his back is turned and then I chuck it in the bin. I can never eat in the mornings, my stomach doesn't like it. The boy who I'm pretty sure is called Rick comes and stands next to me. "You won't get away with that uniform you know. Gina will go crazy when she sees it, and Hankin will go sick." He says with a small laugh.

I look down at the uniform and sigh, "It's not that bad." I look at his uniform which is almost perfect except for the tie which is a little loose and his top button is undone. "Hankin?" I ask him, I'm guessing it's the head, but I could've sworn the head's name began with a 'c'.

"He's our form tutor." He says with a small laugh, "He's a really, really bad teacher, so he's really strict to make up for it. I'm glad I don't have him for maths now I've moved up a set."

"You get put in sets?" I groaned. I would be in the bottom set for everything, I haven't been to school for weeks and I didn't bother much last year either to be honest. "How do you know we'll be in the same form?"

He points at my tie. "It's red see, like mine. You'll be in 11R like me. There are six colours in every year, green, yellow, blue, purple, orange and red. There is thirty people in every form, so that's like a hundred and eighty all together. Johnny's in red as well, but he's in year seven. Elektra and Frank are in yellow, but they're in the year above us anyway." He explained at top speed. I did a double take after getting so much information at once and was about to ask him to explain more about the school, but then we heard a beeping from outside. "That'll be Mike. We'd better go." He said. He walked out to the door and I followed him, Rick seemed pretty clued up about how things worked, I figured if I stuck with him I'd be okay.

The ride to school wasn't long, it only took five minutes, but I figured it would take about twenty to walk. I chatted to Rick mostly about school and Elm-Tree house and other stuff. When we got there I made to follow him, but Mike grabbed my arm before I could. "Remember, we have to go see the head first. I try not to glare but obviously I'm not very successful because Mike chuckles under his breath and then steers me towards the main building.

I waste the next ten minutes of my life sitting on a hard, cold chair that makes me need the toilet every time. After what seems like forever the headmaster calls Mike and I into his office. It's nice in here, posh with plush chairs and a theme or green and brown. I sit in one of the chairs that faces his desk, he is tall, with beady little eyes but a kind face, his beard is well trimmed and his suit is obviously dry cleaned. A shiny golden nameplate on his desk reads 'Mr. Hargreaves, Headmaster'.

He smiles at me and then pulls a folder out of his briefcase with my name on it. I am so freaking sick of seeing folders with my name on it. He flicks through it quickly and then puts it on his desk. "Well it isn't too bad, I've had worse from Elm Tree before." He says thoughtfully. I narrow my eyes, it's not the most encouraging thing to say to a kid on their first day at school. I open my mouth to reply but stop when Mike pokes me in the side. "Your grades will be easy to improve, but you have a long history of truancy. I hope you realise that it isn't tolerated here at Saint Andrews."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and smile at him instead. "Of course." I say, my acting skills coming in useful again. Mike looks a little annoyed at my reaction, but I carry on anyway. "I'm sure that in an esteemed educational establishment such as this, I'll be able to truly unleash my potential." I say and, then I bite my lip in an attempt not to laugh. I'm overdoing it, and I know I'll pay for it later, but the look on Mike's face is so worth it. I'm not sure if the man really believes me, but he seems to, and he nods at from across the desk before telling me to wait outside.

I sit down on one of the chairs, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. I strain to hear what they're saying but all I can hear is a sort of muffled mumbling that sounds a bit like Mike, and then every so often the deeper voice of the Head teacher. By the time they come out I'm sick to the back teeth of school. I don't think I've ever spent this long sitting still in a chair before. The head tells his secretary to show me to classroom.

Mike gives me an encouraging smile, and I roll my eyes before following the lady down the corridor. The school corridors are like an endless maze, and I find myself beginning to despair as to how I'm ever going to find my way round it. Eventually we reach the classroom and she knocks on the door before opening it. "Mister Glosser." She says in a high and irritating voice. "New kid for you." She half pulls me into the room and then shuts the door, and walks away, her high heels making irritating clopping noises on the classroom floor.

The teacher introduces me to the glass and then gives me a seat. I'm glad of the seat for two reasons, firstly, it's by the window, and secondly, it's behind Rick so I will have someone to talk to. I flop down in the seat and put my bag in the floor after pulling out my pencil case and the planner that the secretary gave me. Then the teacher gives me a textbook and an exercise book. I smile at him, but as soon as he's distracted I poke Rick in the back.

He turns round and smiles at me. "Hey." He whispers. "I thought you were never going to show up. This is my friend Liam by the way." He points to a boy sitting next to him, the boy promptly raises his hand and Rick fist bumps it.

I can tell Liam is tall, even if he is sitting down, and he looks well-built as well. His skin is slightly tanned, and has a spattering of freckles, and his hair is short and brown but flops over his forehead. His face his angular but handsome and his eyes are a warm chocolaty brown colour. "Hey." He says with a smile. His voice has a bit of an accent in it, but I can't work out where it's from. "Are you the new kid?"

"Yeah. Sucks." I say, pulling a face.

He laughs and then holds out his hand. "Liam O'Donovan, self-proclaimed scamming genius, soon to be millionaire and former resident of the DG." He says with a smile. I laugh and shake his hand, then I shut up when the teacher glares at me from the other side of the classroom.

The lesson passes slowly, and I mean slowly. By the end of it I'm just about ready to kill myself, and more than tempted to just leave school all together. But my next lesson is with Rick, and although he seems pretty cool, I don't trust him not to tell on me to Mike.

I sit with Rick and Liam and a few of his friends at lunch. There's only one girl with them, her name is Angie, and although she seems okay at first, I soon realise she's the perfect example of a stuck-up rich kid. I get bored easily so after eating I go for a little wander, even though I doubt I'll ever find my way back, and as I walk past the bike sheds outside I smell a familiar scent. _This is more like it. _I think to myself.

I slowly edge my way between the wall and the shed so I can get round the back. There's a large group of guys there, and a few girls as well, I even recognise a few of them. "Room for one more?" I ask with a nervous smile. They look unsure at first, but then one of them recognises me.

"You live on Woodrush, right?" He asks me.

"Yeah." I lie easily. "I think I've seen you around, you live a few floors down?"

He nods and passes me a fag, I take a small drag and then smile at them. They don't have anything to drink, but smokes are the next best thing I suppose, and this lot have got to be more interesting than the kids I was sitting with before.

At the end of lunch I reluctantly go to my next lesson, but one of the other kids is in there as well, so he shows me the way. Rick frowns at me when I walk in but I just smile at him and sit down at a desk the teacher points out for me. I get through the rest of the day with a mixture of doodles and daydreams before using deodorant to mask the scent of cigarette's before I go back to Elm Tree.


	5. 5 Midnight Visitor

**Author's note. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favourite or added this story to their alerts. Means a lot to me :) My exams are almost over now, but I'm going on holiday on Wednesday and I'll probably be getting ready on Tuesday. I'll see if I can update tomorrow, but if not it'll be on Sunday. I hope you enjoy it, and please review, thankyou :)**

If Mike and Gina smelt the smoke, then they didn't say anything, although they did insist on badgering me about how my first day had been. "Great, I learnt so much." I lied with a small laugh before going upstairs to my bedroom.

I flopped down on my bed and then pulled my phone out from under my pillow. I was going to take it to school, but it was out of battery, so I'd had to leave it at the home to charge. I pressed the power button and waited patiently for the crappy little thing to charge up. When it eventually switched on, two messages and three missed calls pooped up on the screen. They were all from Alicia, and the texts read 'who the hell was that girl? Are you okay babes? What happened?' And 'seriously starting to freak out Ell, where the hell are you, pick up your phone.'

I grimaced a little, of course, I'd forgotten to call Alicia I'd been so nervous about school. I took a relaxing deep breath, and then scrolled through the phone book till I found her name. She picked up after the second ring. "Hello?" Her almost panicked voice sounded down the tinny speaker.

"Hi Lis, sorry for not calling, I just forgot." I said apologetically. I knew she'd be kind of angry, I mean for all she knew I'd been abducted the other day, and her being Alicia, she probably spent all of yesterday stressing about it.

"Spill it Ellie. What the hell is happening?" She said in an annoyed voice. "Where've you for the past month."

"They…" I hesitated for a second. Nobody knew I was in care at the moment, as far as they were concerned I'd just moved away, they didn't have a clue what had happened. I wanted to keep it that way as well, and Alicia was well known for being a bit of a gossip, but she was also one of my best friends, ever. I took another deep breath before starting to explain it to her. "I'm in care Alicia. They took me into care."

"You what!" She thundered. "God Ellie, why didn't you tell me sooner?" She paused for a moment; her breathing was heavy down the phone. "Are you, like, with a foster family?"

"No." I breathed. I didn't want to say it, but I knew she would figure it out.

"You're in a kid's home, aren't you?" She said, just as quietly as I had.

"Yeah, but, It's not all bad here you know. My bedroom is bigger, and the food's alright. They've got a pretty decent telly here as well, and a games console. There's not much to do round here, and the area's pretty boring, plus I don't really know anyone but most of the kids are alright. I mean they're a bit strict, the social worker's I mean, and the school is proper posh, and…" I blurted out. _Word vomit, word vomit, stop talking Ellie._ I thought to myself. Thankfully she interrupted me when I said school.

"What, which school you at, what's wrong with Saint Aggie's?" She interjected.

"Oh, yeah… I'm at St. Andrews now. Saint Aggie's was too far, it's not so bad you know, except for the uniform." I said sheepishly. Alicia didn't say anything; I knew she was still there. I could her moving about, I could even imagine the look on her face, and I knew she was just struggling to find the right words. "I'm sorry I never called. Brett told me I couldn't. He's my social worker." I tried to explain, but even as I said it I knew it was a lame excuse.

"Social worker?" She sighed, sounding completely confused. "Why… why are you even in care? What happened Ellie, what actually happened?"

I felt my heart begin to beat faster and my mouth went dry. "I… Well I." I started unsuccessfully. I swallowed and then I ran a hand through my hair. "Okay, I... My dad..." I couldn't say it, I just couldn't. So I did what I always do, I lied. "My mum, she tripped. Hit her head, She's, she's dead Lis. Then the social worker came round, and he said that my dad couldn't look after me, and then, that was that." It was sort of true. Well some of it was true. Well, one part of it was true.

"Why did the police take your dad away then? He never showed up again." She asked. I wondered if she believed me, probably not, Alicia knew me too well, and she did sound kind of sceptical. "I mean your flat's still boarded up, it hasn't been sold, no-one's using it."

"I don't know, I haven't spoken to him. He probably nicked something or something, I don't know." I lied some more. I knew exactly where he was, and why. OCP. Old Connelly Prison. I instantly felt sick just thinking about it.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by the annoying shout of dinner from downstairs, and, just like the other night, I heard a loud rumbling sound as children started to run downstairs. These kids got far too excited about the food here, it wasn't even that nice, and Alicia's mum was a much, much better cook than Gina or Tracy.

"Alicia, I'm sorry, but, I've got to go. Feeding time at the zoo and all that." I said with a short laugh. She murmured goodbye back and then hung up the phone. I could tell she wasn't happy with me, and that she didn't believe me either. I sat there for a moment, Alicia is supposed to be my best friend, and I'd just flat out lied to her about what happened last month. I felt absolutely awful.

I heard a light knocking on the door. "Go away!" I said, I'd intended to yell it, but my voice just came out kind of croaky and strained. "I'm coming alright." I stood up and looked in the mirror, surprised to find that my eyes were a little damp and my mascara was beginning to smudge. I pulled out a wet-wipe and wiped it off, then I went downstairs, hoping that I didn't look I'd been crying.

I sat at the end of the table, as far away as I could from everyone else. Unfortunately Tracy sat down next to me. She gave me what I've started calling 'the social worker smile' and then started loading her plate up with food. I gingerly leaned over and picked up one slice of pizza and then an apple. Like usual Mike and the others didn't seem too pleased with the little food on my plate, but I still wasn't used to eating whatever I wanted whenever, it felt weird and wrong. I was used to having to make food last for as long as I could, because I never knew mum would buy anymore.

After Dinner instead of going straight back upstairs I decided to sit in the living room for a bit. It seemed to be where all the kids hung out, and I figured hiding away in my bedroom was going to make Mike and Gina think something was up, thus narrowing my chances even more of eventual escape.

Most of the kids were playing on guitar hero. I noticed that the high score for every single song was Liam, and I wondered vaguely if that was the same kid I met yesterday. Probably, he did say he used to live in the dumping ground. Elektra was slumped on the couch next to me though, and Gus was sat on the other side scribbling away in his notebook. I peered over at it, wondering what he was writing, and he looked up to give me a slight frown, before returning to his scribbling's.

"I wouldn't bother you know. Gus doesn't like it when people do that." Elektra said, without even turning her head.

I looked over at her and tried to make a stab at conversation. "I like your hair, is it like, properly died or just clip-in's?" I asked her with a smile. One of my friends had a red clip-in for months that we all thought was real.

"Clip-in." She said simply. Clearly she was into the whole making enemies and alienating people thing. I sighed a little, no conversation there obviously. I didn't have to wait long though, because two of the girls finished their game on guitar hero and then came to sit with me.

"Hi!" They said, all bubbly and happy, I tried to smile back, but I'm pretty sure I failed. "I'm Tee and this is Carmen." The shorter of the two said. I was pretty sure that Tee was Johnny's sister. "You're Ellie, right? I like that name, it's pretty. How old are you?" The other girl said, a huge smile plastered across her face.

"Fifteen, but I'll be sixteen in a few months." I said, trying to return her smile. "How old are you guys?" And that was that, they were off, bombarding me with questions and facts about themselves and the other kids. All I could do was listen and nod where appropriate, they were talking so fast it was kind of difficult to follow. Eventually though, they went off to do something else, and I felt kind of tired. It was probably the longest conversation I'd had since getting here. I decided to skip out on making friends for this evening and go back upstairs.

Mike caught me on my way up though, and called me into his office. "I know it's a Friday, but Brett is coming round tomorrow to speak to you, could you please not make any plans, you're grounded anyway, but I just thought I'd let you know." I shrugged a little, I didn't really give a flying shit if my social worker was coming round, the guy got on my nerves more than Mike, Gina and Tracy put together.

"Fine, whatever." I said with a sigh, and then I left his office without another word. I sat down on my bed once I was upstairs and put my iPod on. I checked my phone and realised I had another text from Alicia. I hesitated a little, and then decided I'd open it later. I pulled my book out from under my pillow and then read it for a few hours until I started to feel tired. Then I got changed and got into bed, Kings Of Leon still playing through my tinny earphones.

I fell asleep easily, but had a strange dream about a tree that came to life and started eating people I didn't like. It had just eaten Brett when I heard a noise coming from behind me. At first I wasn't sure if I'd imagined it or not, but then I heard it again. My eyes snapped open, and I realised with absolute horror that it was coming from the window.

I sat up and looked over. The curtains were wide open and there was nobody there as far as I could see. I thought back to this morning trying desperately to remember if I'd locked the window after having opened it to listen to the birds. I didn't have much time to think about it though, before the window swung open and a dark figure dropped onto the floor.

"SHIT!" I said, scrambling out of bed and picking up the first thing my hands found. It happened to be my lamp, thankfully it wasn't actually plugged in. "Who the fuck are you?" I brandished my lamp towards the hooded figure. I felt the wall for the light switch and then light flooded the room after I found it.

"Ellie?" The figure said, pulling his hood down to reveal a cheeky face with short brown hair. "Shit, I'm so sorry, I thought this room was empty, it has been for ages." The boy sounded apologetic and he gave me a little sheepish grin.

"Liam?" I was sure it was the kid I'd met earlier, it looked like him that was for sure. But why the hell was he climbing through my window in the middle of the night. "Well you thought wrong didn't you, you psycho." I said, but I lowered my arm and put the lamp back on my bedside table. "What the fuck are you doing climbing through my window anyway."

He threw his head back and started laughing. "I came to visit Frank, we were gunna sneak out, we used to do it all the time back when I lived here. I thought this room was empty, so I'm sorry for waking you up.

I shivered a little because of the cold air from the window. I marched across the room to the window and peered out of it. "Got any other would-be-criminal's with you?" I said sarcastically. "How did you even get up here, I mean this is the second floor."

He came to stand next to me and pointed at a drainpipe and then the window beneath mine. "Easy see, you just climb on there and then up the drainpipe." He said, making it sound a hell of a lot easier than it looked to me.

"If you show me how, I'll forgive you for breaking into my bedroom, waking me up and scaring the shit out of me." I said with a sarcastic smile. He laughed and nodded, climbing out of my window and onto the small ledge. I stared at him, wondering what the hell he was doing. "I thought you came here to see Frank?"

"Yeah, but he can wait, I thought you wanted to know how to do it?" He said with another laugh. He had a nice laugh, sort of throaty and deep. I smiled at him, and then climbed out of the window as well, squeezing onto the tiny ledge next to him.


	6. 6 Rainy day

When I woke up the next day I wasn't sure if I had just dreamed the whole thing or not. It was difficult to believe that a boy had broken into my room to visit Frank, and then spent the next hour trying to show me how to climb up and down a drainpipe. I shook my head vigorously, to shake all thoughts of Liam from it, and then pulled my phone out from under my pillow. The screen was blank, no texts or missed calls from Alicia, or even anyone. I sighed, hoping Lis had been able to keep her gob shut this time.

I slid out of bed and pulled on my school uniform, then I gave my hair a quick brush and pulled it into a messy plait. I was about to put on some make-up when there was a knock at my door. "Yeah?" I called, slightly annoyed at this interruption so early in the morning. Living in a kids home really sucks.

Gina popped her head round the door. "Just checking you were up." She said with a smile. Her eyes travelled over my customised uniform and then the make-up in my hands. "I think you need to tone down that uniform girl. And you can't wear make-up to school, yeah."

"Yeah, okay." I said, trying as hard as I could not to roll my eyes. I put the make-up back in the basket and then gave her a please-leave-me-alone-already look. She didn't look pleased, but she retreated back into the hallway anyway. After she left I leaned closer to the mirror and fingered the blue-yellow bruise on my left cheekbone and then the one above my right eye and the one that ran along the right side of my jaw.

They were all clearly visible and still hurt to touch. I couldn't go without foundation or they would be too obvious. I sighed a little before squeezing some onto my fingers and then wincing as I rubbed it over the bruises. I hoped Gina wouldn't notice, or if she did she'd understand. The bruises were faint now, so you could only see a slight discolouration if you looked properly, I just hoped I wouldn't have to do P.E., no way would I be able to hide them then.

I picked my discarded bag up off the floor and shoved a few books into it**. **It was only half seven so I switched off the light and lay on my bed listening to professor green for a bit off my iPod. After a while there was another knock at the door. I gritted my teeth, can't you ever get any privacy round here. "What." I said, barely containing my annoyance.

The door swung open to reveal Elektra leaning against the doorway, an angry look on her face. "Just thought you should know that we're about to leave. Next time I won't bother."

"No, I'm sorry." I said quickly, leaping up off the bed and grabbing my bag off the desk. She gave me a fake smile and then turned on her heels and stomped downstairs. I followed her, feeling rather sheepish about being rude to her. The others were waiting by the front door. "Sorry guys. Have I made you late."

"Yes." Elektra said grumpily, I bit my lip. I didn't really care about getting into trouble, but I didn't want these guys to get in trouble as well.

"Just ignore her. We won't be late if we leave now." Frank said, with a slight glare at Elektra. He smiled at me and I smiled back before trooping out the door with the rest of them. It was a horrible day. The sky was a murky grey, and there was no sign of blue sky or the sun. Rain was pouring out of the sky and I was glad I remembered my jacket. I pulled up the hood over my head and shivered a little in the cold.

I don't really mind the rain that much. Sure it's cold and wet, and I always hate having to spend the day outside when it's raining. But it's also really pretty. I love how when the light shines through it, the rain sparkles and scatters rainbows all over the place. I like how it looks when it trickles down the window, and the noise it makes as it hits the ground is one of my favourite noises in the world.

Even so, I didn't enjoy the walk to school that morning. By the time I got there I was completely soaked and I could tell I'd caught a cold. I knew it was going to be a bad day there and then. I hung up my jacket because it was too wet to wear anymore, and I was just hoping it would be dry enough to wear home tonight. Then I followed Rick to our first lesson, we had a tutorial period with our form tutor. I wasn't entirely sure what that was because we didn't have them at Saint Aggie's, but after what I'd been told about our form tutor I wasn't looking forward to it.

I sat down at a desk with Rick, and almost dozed off while Hankin was taking the register. I guess climbing up and down a drainpipe in the middle of the night really takes it out of you. It vaguely registered in my head that Liam wasn't in school. I could imagine as the sort of guy who would take a day off school if he was tired, so I figured he'd probably just be sleeping or something.

After he finished the register Hankin stood up and started handing out worksheets. I ignored the white paper on my desk and stared vaguely out of the window, wishing I could be anywhere but here, preferably my bed. I was so engrossed in the water dripping down the glass that I didn't notice the door opening until Hankin's voice sounded out, angry and loud. "What time do you call this Mister O'Donovan?"

I looked up to see Liam standing at the door. A cheeky grin spread across his face. "Sorry sir. I was sleeping."

"Right, well, you're in detention tonight. Now go sit down." Hankin booms angrily. Liam simply smiles and then comes to sit next to us. Rick and I laugh and he joins in, but we all shut up when Hankin gives us a stern glare. I sigh and pull the worksheet over; I give it a quick glance and then raise my eyebrows. It was about drugs, I figured that meant tutorial was the same as P.S.H.E.

I yawned a little as I filled in a few blank spaces on the sheet with doodles and scribbles, Liam smirked beside me. "Are you tired Ellie? You really should go to sleep earlier." He said with a small laugh.

I glared at him and then flicked a piece of paper at his forehead. "You're the one who was late for school because you slept in." I said, sticking my tongue out at him. Rick looked from me to Liam and then rolled his eyes, and then he looked at my worksheet and copied a few of the answers down.

The lesson passed horrifically slowly. Hankin gave us a bunch more worksheets and droned on about how harmful smoking and drugs are. We spent most of the lesson playing hangman on the back of our sheets, Liam was awful, but Rick was amazing and still remains undefeated.

Next lesson was maths, my average grade for maths is an E, and I can honestly say it is my least favourite lesson ever. I also wasn't with Rick or Liam for it, because they're both in the middle set and I'm in the bottom set. As soon as I sat down I wished I hadn't even bothered coming. The teacher started quizzing the class on algebra and other mathematical concepts I didn't understand. I could feel my eyelids beginning to drop, and before I knew it I was asleep. Thankfully my desk was at the back of the classroom so I didn't get caught.

When the bell rang I woke up with a start, glad that nobody had noticed I'd slept through the entire thing, i left the classroom as quick as I could and then looked at my timetable. I felt my heart sink from my chest right down to my feet. It was double P.E.. I'd been feeling kind of better after my nap, but I just felt awful again. I walked slowly to my locker to get my P.E. kit, the entire way trying to think of a way to get out of this. By the time I got there I knew there was only one thing for it, I'd have to bunk.

I deposited my bag in the locker and then headed outside and over to the bike-sheds. I went slowly to make sure I didn't get caught, but if I did then I could just lie and say I was lost. I squeezed through the tiny gap to find five people; I recognised four of them from yesterday, sitting on the wall there with some smokes. I smiled at them, and they relaxed once they recognized them. Then I settled down on the bench next to one of the girls and started talking to them.

The nicest one was a girl called Heather. She told me that usually there were more people at lunch and break, but it's risky to bunk here because you almost always get caught. I bit my lip a little when she told me that, but then decided it didn't matter, no way in hell was I going to go to P.E. I chatted to Heather for the whole of the double period and then a bunch more people showed up so I figured it must be lunch.

Heather and one of the boys and I went to get some lunch. I was expecting them to go to the lunch hall, but instead they went towards the main gate. I hesitated for a moment when we got there. A "Where are we going?" I asked them casually, not wanting to sound like a chicken, not that I was bothered about getting in trouble.

"Oh, there's this café down the road we like to go to for lunch." Heather explained with a small laugh. I joined in and then followed them out the gate and towards a small row of shops that the referred to as Welly road. There was also a small shop that Heather told me was where she bought her ciggy's because they always serve her. I went halfies on a bacon butty with Heather, because neither of us had a lot of money, and then we got some tea before going back to school.

I almost got detention in the next lesson because we were late, and I spent the entire hour talking to Heather. Both of the last two lessons passed quickly because I was sat with Heather, and at the end of the day she gave me her mobile number and said we should meet up sometime over the weekend. I grimaced a little because I was still grounded, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me from getting out this weekend.

I walked home with Frank and the others again, unfortunately it was still raining and my jacket wasn't dry, so I was even wetter by the time we got to Elm Tree than I had been this morning. After we went in I headed upstairs to take a shower but before I got to the top of the stairs Gina blocked my way. "Your social worker's here, yeah. You need to go into the office."

I frowned a little, I'd forgotten that Mike had told me Brett was coming today, I couldn't think what it was for, because I'd only seen him three days ago. "Well I need to get changed first. I'm freezing." I said, annoyed at her for keeping me on the stairs.

She eyed my sodden clothing, dripping and my blue lips, then nodded and moved out of my way. "Be quick, yeah?" She called after me as I sprinted up the stairs and into my bedroom. I took the wet clothes off and laid them out on the radiator before pulling some dry leggings and a tee-shirt on. I picked up the hair-dryer that Mike had given me, and then brushed my hair while blowing the deliciously warm air onto my face.

Once I was completely dry I headed downstairs with a feeling of complete dread in my stomach. It can never be good when your social worker comes on an impromptu visit. It can only ever mean that you're a, in trouble, or b, something bad has happened. I could hear several hushed voices from behind the door, three of them I recognised as Brett, Tracy and Mike, but I didn't recognise the fourth. With a small sigh I knock on the door and then push it open when I hear Mike say. "Come in."

The fourth voice that I didn't recognise belonged to a tall woman in a suit, she had brown hair and, at a guess, I'd say she was in her late forties. Her face had several stress lines on it, she looked very professional, like she spent more than half of her day working, but also a bit wary of the conversation she was about to have.

I looked at Mike who gestured for me to sit down in the office chair. Just like the first day I perched gingerly on the edge of it, my heart was getting faster by the second as I realised there was no way this was just a social visit. "Ellie." Brett said with one of the biggest social-worker-smiles I've ever seen plastered across his face. "How are you? Are you settling in okay?"

I raised my eyebrows at his half-hearted stab at conversation. "Yeah, it's alright." I mumbled. "Can you just tell me what this is about already, I have stuff to do."

Brett glanced at Mike and then gestured at the woman in the suit. "This is Brenda, Brenda Walls. She's… she's the prosecutor in your dad's case." I frowned for a moment, I was pretty sure the prosecutor was the person who would present the case against my dad, but I wasn't completely sure. I looked at her, she gave me a fake smile which I nodded to before looking back at Brett.

"So. What does that have to do with me?" I asked him, feeling kind of confused. I didn't care if she was my dad's prosecutor, he was going to jail, hopefully for life, and I wanted to forget about him as best I could. It wasn't going to be easy I knew that, but I didn't care, I didn't want him to be a part of my life anymore.

"The thing is Ellie. Your dad is, well he's pleading not guilty." Brett said slowly. I sat completely still for a moment, completely stunned by what he'd just said.

"Wait, what?" I asked as soon as I was able to move my mouth.

"He's pleading not guilty Ellie. There's going to be a long trial, it could go on for weeks before he's sentenced." Brett explained. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I glanced up to see Tracy looking down at my sympathetically. "And they need you to testify, because you're the main witness."

I looked from Brett to Brenda and then Mike, at first I was completely shocked, but then I felt a ball of anger beginning to well up inside of my chest. I shrugged Tracy's hand off and stood up, my hand's balled into fists so tight that my knuckles went white and I could see the veins popping out of my wrists. "But he is guilty. I know he's guilty. He's still going to jail, right? Because that's where the bastard belongs. He'll still get sent down, right?" I half yelled, my voice shaking with anger. My breathing was quick and shallow and I could feel my heart beating fast and hard in my mouth. "He has to go to jail, cos', he did do it. I was there, I watched him… I watched him kill her, I watched him kill my mum. Right in front of me. How else did she die? Did a knife just accidently fall on her stomach seven times, no. He stabbed her, and then he stabbed me when I called the police. He has to go to jail, he just has to."

It all came out in a rush, like the biggest word vomit ever. I could feel the still not healed scars on my stomach and the one next to my shoulder tingling. Tracy put her arm round my shoulders. "It's okay…" She started.

"NO." I yelled, moving away from her so her arm dropped. "No it's not okay." Then I turned on my heels and ran from the room, down the hallway and out of the front door. I kept on running until my legs were sore and I had a stitch in the side of my stomach. I stopped and sat down on the nearest bench. I leaned against the bar and pulled my legs up onto the wood, hunching them up against my chest. My breathing was still quick and I had to take a deep breath to try and get it under my control.

It was still raining, and I could feel water trickling down my neck and face. It was cold and it made me shiver, but I didn't even care. All I could think about was my dad. He'd always been a bastard, all my life he'd pushed my mum and I around. He could never hold down a job and he would drink to high heaven every night. I always had to watch my step around him, or I'd end up being hit or chucked out the flat late at night.

I have good memories of him as well, whenever he wasn't drinking he suddenly became this great guy, he'd take us too theme parks or the zoo, and buy me ice cream and new clothes, then we'd go out for a meal, like a proper family should. When he was in a good mood it would sort of rub off on my mum, usually she'd spend all day in bed, crying and sleeping. She'd take about fifty different types of anti-depressant a day, but they never worked, the only thing that made her happy was when my dad paid her any sort of attention whatsoever.

I breathe out slowly, if I had my iPod I'd put on some music and try to get lost in it, that usually helped me forget, but right now I couldn't get that night out of my head. The over-whelming, rusty smell of blood, my mum's horrifically loud screams and pleads. I remember pressing myself up against my bedroom door and peering through the crack, seeing my mum's lifeless body lying on the floor, lying in a pool of red liquid and panicking. I called the police as quickly as I could, whispering hurriedly down the phone. Then a huge shadow clocked the light coming from the crack in the door. I still have nightmares of that moment, when the door opened with a bang to reveal my dad standing there, his drunken eyes staring at the phone and a blood stained knife in his right hand.

Everything is blurry after that. I remember pain, searing white pain, and then I remember falling and feeling like I wasn't ever going to get back up again. I remember wanting to go to sleep, but paramedics telling me to stay awake. The next thing I remember after that is waking up in a hospital, my head clogged up with morphine and other drugs. Brett was there, and a few police men. I had to make a statement, and I thought that would be it. I thought my dad would go to prison, and that I wouldn't have to hear from him ever again.

Salty tears are mixing with the droplets of rain on my face. I wipe my hand across my eyes, in a vain attempt to stop myself from crying, but it was only a few seconds later till tears were sliding down my face. "Are you okay?" An unfamiliar face pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to see an old-ish woman looking down at me. The smile on her face was a genuine one full of concern, I smiled back at her.

"Yeah." I lied. "I fell over, I think I've sprained my ankle. It really hurts." It was a lame excuse for crying, but it was better than telling her the truth.

"Would you like a lift somewhere?" She asked kindly, I have a car.

I sighed and gulped a little. I wasn't ready to go back to the home yet. I didn't want them watching me, analysing my every behaviour, wondering if I was too happy or too sad I shook my head a little and smiled at her. "No. That's okay, it feels a bit better now. I think I'll walk." I gave her another smile and then began to walk aimlessly in any direction.

**Author's note. I hope you like it :) thanks to everyone who has favourite or reviewed this story****, it really means a lot to me****. I have a lot of exams coming up, so I will try to update, but I can't promise anything, sorry. Please review**** and give me any thoughts, criticisms or pointers because they are all a great help :)**


	7. 7 Runaway

**Authors note: Exams are finally over :) Yayy, so I should be able to update a lot more now, because it's just summer hols for the next three months :) Thanks to everyone who read, favourited or reviewed the last chapter, makes me smile. I hope you like this chapter as much, and I would love it if you reviewed :)**

I didn't really know where I was going. Before I'd just wanted to get as far away from Elm Tree as I could, as fast as I could. I'd always been a pretty good runner, so I'd put some distance in between me and Elm Tree house until my legs got too sore too carry on, and now I was lost. I'd never known this area well in the first place. It was too posh too be the sort of place I'd hang out with friends, and any there wasn't anything interesting here that you couldn't get closer to the estate. I considered stopping and asking for directions, but what would I ask for, I needed to know where I was going first.

Eventually I stopped in a park and grimly prepared myself for sleeping rough. I'd done it before when things got too bad at home or dad chucked me out for the night and I had no place else to go but Alicia's or the local park. I picked the thickest looking tree I could find, as it was still raining, and settled down underneath it for the night. I was lucky I happened to be wearing this jumper in particular, it was insanely thick, and while it wouldn't keep me warm, it would certainly stop me from getting hypothermia.

I shivered well into the night, my sleep disturbed by the unfamiliar sounds of the park and the occasional drops of water that would find their way through the roof of leaves above me. My dreams themselves where littered with terrifying images from my past, and when I woke up in the morning I was faced with that dreadful sensation of feeling like I haven't actually slept at all. My fingers were startlingly pale and I couldn't feel my toes anymore.

Shakily I pulled off my converses and started rubbing the life back my feet until I could wiggle my toes freely again, then I pulled my shoes back on and crawled out from under the bush. It was no longer raining, but I could tell from the murky colour of the sky that it wouldn't be long before it started again, and I wanted to be well on my way by then. I was thinking a bit more coherently now that I'd slept and last night events felt a lot further away, so I made up my mind about where I was going and then asked the first person I saw for directions.

My memory had never been very good, but I only got lost once and was able to correct myself before I went too far out of my way. I almost smiled when I first saw the tower blocks. They rose from the otherwise flat landscape like three huge deformities, ugly and square they stuck out like a sore thumb and made it pretty easy to find my way from there. It's raining again now, the clouds above me reach havoc on the earth, and create vast puddles in the pavement that I have to trample through because they're just too big to go round. My hair was soaked, and my clothes clung to my skin, and my fingers and toes were beginning to feel numb again.

I could tell I was getting near to the estate when graffiti started cropping on the walls and shop windows. I loved how I didn't look out of place here. A bedraggled and soaked teenager wondering through the streets on her own was a normal occurrence on the Woodrush, and I knew nobody would bother to stop me. When I finally got to the second block of high-rise flats I hesitated a moment before going in, I hadn't been here in more than a month now. I felt strange and uncomfortable, like a child swearing for the first time. This place was out of bounds, not only would I get in a lot of trouble for going up there, but I was also kind of scared. I felt like I was crossing a line that you just didn't cross, a taboo, but I went in anyway.

I knew better than to use the main entrance. The lift had been broken for years, there was no way it will have been fixed in my absence, and instead I cut round the side and use the back stairs, climbing up until I reached the third floor. I walk down the corridor slowly, wrinkling my nose a little at the smell. I couldn't understand why it suddenly smelt so bad here, but then I realised it had always smelt like this, I just got used to it because I lived here for so long.

I pause outside the flat, staring up at the familiar number plate. Two silver numbers, two and three, sit next to each other on a flat, wooden plaque which is patterned with several brightly coloured flowers. Above it there is a sign that says welcome in beautifully scripted writing with a bold blue spots. I know for a fact both of the sings are hand-made, and for the first time since leaving Elm Tree I feel a smile creep over my face, then I raise my hand and knock on the door three times.

At first I can't hear anything, and I almost turn around to leave before I hear a slight disturbance through the wall before the door swings open to reveal Alicia's mum, Holly. She's tall with blonde hair tied back by a flowery bow, and kind blue eyes. She's wearing a light pink dress patterned with silver and gold swirls and multi-coloured dots. "Hey Ellie, Alicia isn't in, she stayed at a friend's last night."

The smile falls from my face and I mumble some sort of sorry or thank you before turning back to the stairs. "Wait!" She calls after me. "You're soaked Ellie, come on in for goodness sake, you'll catch your death if you go back outside." Smiling she led me into the flat and told me to sit down at the table while she made me some hot chocolate.

I've always loved Alicia's flat. It's like a pocket of colour in an otherwise bleak and grey area. The walls are painted with rainbows and covered in wall hangings with sweet little messages on them. Most of the flat is so dense with plants that it feels like your exploring a tropical rainforest, and it's always smelt really good as well, sort of flowery. Basically the flat matches Holly in every way possible.

Once she's finished with the hot chocolate she sits down opposite me and passes me a brightly coloured mug patterned with spots and stripes. I take a grateful swig from it, happy to let the scent and taste of the rich, hot, liquid chocolate fill my mouth and nose. I swallow happily, feeling instantly warmer and just generally more human. I take another mouthful, totally immersed in the taste, but I still notice the way Holly is watching me. She hasn't touched her mug, and I can feel her eyes on me, taking in my scruffy appearance, soaked clothes, messy hair and general lack of self-preservation, as well as my obvious hunger and thirst.

When I've finally drained the mug, savouring the flavour of the last few dregs that always seem to be the most chocolaty, she pushes her mug to me and places mine in the sink. I pick it up warily, but once I realise that she's serious I drink from it gratefully.

We chat for a little bit, the usual ridiculously boring totally and completely pointless small talk that adults always insist on when you see them. But I should've known that Holly wouldn't have kept it up for very long. "So Ellie, what brings you here?" She asks me in a casual tone. "Shouldn't you be at home, I thought you teenagers usually slept in till ridiculous times?"

I bite my lip warily, wondering vaguely if Holly would be cool with it if she knew I'd run away, then again she'd probably guessed that one already. To give myself more time I take another drink from the mug and then open my mouth to reply, but before I can say anything there is a click in the door, it swings open and Alicia bustles in.

I stand up automatically, all ready to run across the room and hug her. But then I remember the last time we spoke, and I just sort of stand there awkwardly instead. We stare each other out for a moment, my blue eyes against her green ones, each waiting for the other to move first. She makes the first move, crossing the small kitchen in three long strides and pulling me into a tight hug. She whispers sorry into my hair and I hug her tighter and then whisper the same.

She pulls away and I smile at her while she groans. "Dammit Ellie, I'm all wet now, come on, I'll lend you some clothes." She pulls me into her bedroom and chucks me some clean clothes. I turn away from her and change quickly while she inspects the wet clothes. "Gawd Ellie, what did you do sleep in a bush, they're covered in mud and twigs and shit."

"Not quite a bush." I admit sheepishly, as I pull a warm jumper on.

"What?" She says, eyebrows raised, she pulls me over to the two beanbags in the corner of her room and pushes me into one of them. "Right, spill it, and I mean the truth this time Ellie. Promise me." She holds out her little finger, and reluctantly I link it, and then she collapses into the bean bag next to me. "Right, you pinky promised, you have to tell the truth now."

I roll my eyes at her. "What are we, eight?" I say sarcastically, but I start telling her anyway, and once I start I can't stop. It's more than just a word vomit, the words flow from my mouth like a river and I can't stop them or take them back. I even tell her the truth about my mum and dad, and when I'm finished she just sits there, completely gobsmacked. "And that's why I can't go back." I rounded off. "Because if I do they'll make me testify, I just know it, and I don't think I can."

She frowns for a moment. "But, I don't get it. If you want him to go to prison, then why not testify?" She says slowly, clearly not understanding what I'm trying to say.

"Because I want him to go to jail, but I don't want to put him there. He's still my dad, even if he is a shit one." I say with a small sigh. "And if I go there, to court, then I'll have to stand there, and watch him lie about what he did, and I don't think I could take it Alicia." She bites her lip, clearly unsure of what to say, we sit there in silence for a moment and then she stands up quickly and grabs her laptop from the desk before sitting back down.

"What are you doing?" I ask her as she flips it open and presses the power button.

"I bet you don't have to testify if you don't want to. They can't make you I'm sure." She says, opening up Google and starting her research. We sit there in silence for a few minutes as Alicia types furiously on her laptop. After a while she stops typing and then bites her lip and gives me a melancholy sigh. "Looks like you have to. If they call you too court you don't have a choice. Is that's what's happened?"

I glance at the page she has open on the glowing screen and sigh a little. She's right, you do have to by law, or else you could sent to prison yourself. My chest felt heavy and my stomach felt a little queasy, in order to calm myself down a little I took a long sip from the glass of water on Alicia's desk. I still felt like I was about to hurl, but it wasn't as bad as it was before, and it helped me think a little clearer.

"I guess so, I'm the main witness, hell, in a way I'm sorta the victim." I say vaguely, staring out of Alicia's window, watching the rain making squiggly lines from the top to the bottom of it. I could feel the biggest scar on my stomach tingling. The one that almost killed me. I take a deep breath and then look at Alicia. "I just won't go back. I'll be a runaway. Last night wasn't too bad, if I can just get some blankets or something I'd be a bit warmer, and maybe a tent. I can steal food if I need to, I used to all the time when I was little. It wouldn't be so bad." I said resolutely, but even as I said I knew I was talking bollocks. Street-life would be dismal, far, far worse than the kids home, but at least I wouldn't have to go to court.

"Well you ain't sleeping rough tonight El. You can bed down here, mum won't mind. Then, see how you feel about it in the morning, yeah?" She said in the most reasonable voice she could manage. I couldn't help but smile a little when she added yeah on to the end of her sentence the same way Gina did. That got me thinking about Gina, Mike and the others. I'd been away for almost twenty-four hours now, they'd be livid if I ever went back. I guessed they'd probably already called the police, I wonder how long it would take them before they realised I wasn't coming back, and they'd give my room to someone else.

"Thanks Alicia, I owe you one." I said with a smile. She grinned at me and then pulled a spare duvet out of her cupboard and chucked it at me. I spread it out on her bed with a smile. Well I call it a bed, Alicia actually sleeps on a futon that's almost permanently folded out, it's weird, but comfy and big enough for two.

"Let's call it quits after that time you took the blame at school so i wouldn't get suspended." I smiled at the memory. Alicia had spray painted one of her favourite band logos onto the science block wall, but one of the teachers worked out it was her and went sick. If I hadn't taken the blame she would've been suspended, for almost two years I used it to guilt trick her into doing stuff for me, until it was forgotten. "Anyways, if we're having a sleepover we need to go the shops, I think it's time to stock up on supplies." She said with a small laugh, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet.

Her mum gives her some money, as well as a list of stuff she needs to buy, and then some extra money for just for our sleepover. She lends me a coat to wear down to the shops, it's an old one, because I'm a lot shorter than her, but it's also thick and warm, and I can't help but wish I'd worn one like this last night. Then she drags me down to the local shops.

It wasn't a pleasant shopping trip, I was constantly on edge that Tracy was going to drive past, yell at me and then drag me back to Elm Tree, but of course she never did. We bought fizzy drinks popcorn, chocolate, ben and jerry's ice cream and pizza. Then we went to the movie rental shop and picked out a horror movie, a comedy and a romance because Alicia says it's always good to have variety. I already knew what her plan was; she was trying to distract me.

It didn't work. It was nice of her to try though, and we still had fun. We watched the movies one after the other until we were too tired to keep our eyes open and her bedroom was littered with empty sweet wrappers and bottles that once contained coke. I know it had only been the one night in the park, but it still felt good to sleep on a proper bed, in the warmth, in pyjamas and feeling full. Plus with Alicia right next to me it almost felt like old times. Almost. It was still there though, in the back of my head, mum, dad, the court case.


	8. 8 Hard decisions

**Hey guys. Sorry you had to wait so long for me to update, I've been in sunny Italy, which was a nice change from rainy England, but i'm back now and i promise i'll update more often. Please review, it puts a smile on my face, and favorite and add to story alerts as well. Thank you :)**

I slept well that night, even better than I had done back at the Elm Tree. I know I only spent three days there, but it had started to feel sort of homely. Woodrush would always be where I belonged, but I'd started to think of as Elm Tree as an almost decent substitute. A temporary home I could actually accept the idea of living in. But that was all over now. I'd made the decision to leave in a blur of anger and frustration, and I couldn't go back, not now, not ever. They will have called the police by now. But I had another couple of hours before they'd bother doing anything.

I needed to be off the estate by then, because that would be their first instinct, that I was running away. I yawned and rolled over on the futon. Alicia was wide awake next to me, her eyes scanning the pages off a well-thumbed book. "What's it about?" I asked her with a smile.

She answered without even looking at me, glued to the page. "It's about a girl who falls in love with this guy." She explained. I rolled my eyes, so typical of Ali, it was probably some sort of modern love story. I could tell from the cover it would be full of cheesy lines and would have a very love conquers all feel to it, so basically it would be full of shit. Everyone knows love only exists in fairy tales.

My stomach roared loudly, and Ali burst into giggles at the sound. "What did they feed you at that home, bread and water?" She said, still snorting.

"No." I replied, "Far worse, sprouts." Ali and I then dissolved into fits of laughter, remembering last year when her mother had invited me round for Christmas dinner, and everything went wrong. The chicken was dodgy, the vegetables burnt and the Christmas pudding squashed. The only thing edible was a plate of sprouts, we tried eating them, but only made it through one each before we gave up. In the end we had to trek across town to get chips from the only open takeaway.

"Come on." Ali said when we finally stopped laughing. She stood up and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. "I'll get you some breakfast." We went into her kitchen and she grabbed some eggs, hash browns, waffles and bacon. I smiled and she laughed at my reaction. "Don't worry, I remember your favourite's." It was a bit of an odd mix, but they were all breakfast, and they tasted pretty good. She started cooking the food, and she talked while she cooked, garbling on about school and other stuff.

"I know it didn't exactly work out last year, but my mum's way better at cooking now, you should come round this Christmas, I promise we won't make any sprouts." I giggle a little, and then pause to think. I wasn't sure if I'd be allowed if I was living in a home, and if I wasn't then where would I be, certainly not in a position to spend Christmas with a friend.

"Maybe." I replied with a small sigh. Alicia smiled and then put the food on two plates. At first we ate in silence, but then Alicia started off another round of conversation. Alicia wanted to go to down to the park for a bit, because that was where everyone hung out on Saturdays. But I was convinced it was too dangerous after the other day, I was sure to be found. Instead I convinced her to text round a few people, and meet them at the local woods instead.

It was a good day, we managed to grab the fire pit before anyone else did, and it wasn't raining anymore, so with the encouragement of some vodka, and some painstakingly hard to find dry wood, we got a fire lit pretty quickly. Our friend Derry, whose dad owns an off-license, brought a load of Jack Daniels, Malibu, and Bacardi. So we bought some coke to mix with it, and we made it last for a while. Because it was nearing the end of October it got dark pretty quickly, and under the canopy of trees it was even darker.

One of the girls, Joanna, grabbed a torch from her bag and flicked the switch before placing it under her chin, then she smiled demonically. "Time for some scary stories, don't you think?" She said in an eerie voice. I giggled and Alicia gripped my arm tightly. "Did you know that these woods were once the place of an ancient burial ground? Newcastle was just a medieval town, and whenever somebody died their body would be brought up to the hill where it would be buried in the traditional way." Joanna began. As the story continued Alicia's hand got tighter around my arm, and by the end of it she was close on hyperventilating. She pulled some L&B fags out of her bag and lit one to 'steady her nerves' I laughed a little and then grabbed one for myself.

As it got later people started to drift off. Alicia made no motion of wanting to leave, but I wasn't sure what I would say when she did. Although thankfully Joanna saved the day. "I reckon we should sleep out, it would be a right laugh. My sister's home from uni for the weekend, I reckon she'd let us use my camper van." A few people, including me, agreed quickly, so Joanna went off to get it.

It was a good night; we didn't get much sleep, and instead stayed up talking, drinking, smoking and telling each other more scary stories. Eventually everyone dropped off to sleep at about fourish, including me, and nobody woke up until well into the next day. My time was well and truly up now. The police would be on the lookout, and it wouldn't be long before they'd be on the estate going from door to door.

I had to make a decision. I could go back to Elm Tree, say I'm sorry and everything would be forgotten about, or I could get a train to someplace far away, try to make it on my own. Option number one was no use of course, I couldn't go back now, and they'd watch me closer than ever, they might even move me further away from the estate than they did before. No, I had only one choice. I'd jump on the first train I could, no matter where it was going, then I'd get a job, squat in some unused houses.

I sighed a little. Everyone else was sitting outside, smoking and drinking the little that was left from last night. They were moving slowly, they didn't have anywhere to be, and they had no choices to make. They may not have much money and they might live on a grotty, rough estate, but I found myself insanely jealous of them. Sighing I stood up and jumped out of the van. For a moment I considered just leaving, none of them were looking at me, they wouldn't even notice for the next few minutes, it would certainly save me a goodbye.

But I owed them too much for that. "I think I'm off now guys." I said, as loudly as I could manage. They said their goodbye's, pulling me into warm hugs. I had to work hard not to cry. I went to Ali last, but she just frowned. "Why can't you stay with me, mum won't mind."

I almost laughed. "I know, and thanks for the other night, but I have to leave now." I tried to explain without telling her my plans.

"You're leaving Newcastle, aren't you?" She asked. I sighed and then nodded. She hugged me tightly. "Your being daft you know. You could stay here, you could just testify. It would be a good thing if your dad went to prison." I nibbled on my lip a little and then hugged her even tighter.

"I'll miss you Ali." I said as I pulled away. I gave her a smile and then turned around and headed through the woods and onto a path that I knew would take me to the main road. I know the way to the train station well. We always used to use the underground to get to the main shopping centre. It was only a few stops and it didn't cost much. But I'd never used it to go outside of Newcastle before; in fact I'd never really been out of Newcastle before. We never went on holiday, and we didn't have enough money for day trips. I gulped a little at the thought of this, but I kept on walking.

The walk wasn't long, it took me about half an hour but when I got there I had the issue of finding a way of getting on a train. Anything above zero was out of my price range, so I had no choice but to sneak onto one. I looked up at the board showing the train times. The next one went to Leeds, and then Cardiff, but in an hour there was one going to London.

I'd never been to London, hell I'd never really been out of Newcastle, so anywhere was appealing. But London, the capital of England. That had to be full of opportunities, right? There'd be plenty of boarded up houses to squat in, and it couldn't be too hard to get a job. It was risky though, waiting an hour, the police were almost sure to check the train station, or Mike and Gina. In the end I decided it was worth it to go to London. So I pulled up the hood on my hoodie and tried to look down at the ground so I wouldn't seem conspicuous. Unfortunately this meant I wasn't looking where I was going and I ended up walking straight into someone.

"Oi, watch it." The person said in an angry voice as we both fell to the floor. My hood flew back over my shoulders and I quickly pulled it up, but the damage was done. "Ellie?" I looked over at the boy I'd sent flying and tried not to smile when I saw his face.

"Liam?" I said in surprise. I'd been so worried about seeing social workers or the police that I hadn't even thought I might see someone else I know. At first I was happy to see a friendly face, but then I panicked a little, _would he tell?_ _No_, I decided, this was Liam,_ he showed me how to climb up and down a drainpipe_.

"What are you doing here?" We both said it at the same time, and then cracked into identical grins.

"Just come back from visiting my uncle. Me and my brother Jack found out about him a few months ago, he's sound uncle Simon, lives like forever away mind." He explained, flourishing towards a green train that was sitting nearby. "Your turn."

"Ermm, I was just, well I was…" I trailed off. I had no answer for him, and he had probably already figured it out.

"Shame." He said with a small sigh. "You seemed pretty cool, I was hoping we could hang out." I looked down and bit my lip a bit. I'd liked Liam as well, and I'd wanted us to be friends, but it was too late now. "Do you have to leave now? Maybe we could hang out today, drinks on me?"

I paused for a moment. It was an appealing offer. But I would undoubtedly be caught if I stayed round here any longer. It was risky and stupid, but I found myself nodding eagerly at him. His face cracked into a huge, cheeky grin. "Well come on then, what are you waiting for." He said with a laugh, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the swarming crowds. I found myself smiling in spite of myself as we dodged between people.

When we eventually emerged from the train station we were greeted with dark grey clouds and a steady drizzle of freezing rain. I groaned a little and Liam laughed. "Typical Newcastle." He said with another grin. "Come on, we'll go the park first."

We made our way through the streets until we found the park, it was the same one I'd slept rough in two nights ago, and I couldn't help but look towards the bush I'd slept under. Liam stretched out his arms and then lay down on the ground, arms behind his head as if he was basking in the warmth of a sunny day. Laughing I lay down next to him, even though the ground was damp and the rain was getting heavier by the minute. "What now?" I asked him after a while, beginning to feel the wet from the ground come through my clothes.

"You hungry?" He asked. As he said it I felt my stomach growl, and I realised I hadn't had anything to eat yet today, not that it really bothered me, I could go till tea time without eating anything and feel fine.

"I guess." I replied.

"Let's go eat them." He stood up and held out his hand to pull me up. Then he headed over to the nearest bin, I followed him with a look of disgust on my face as he rooted through its contents.

"I'm not so hungry I want something from the bin, I'd rather go without, couldn't we just buy something." I said, although I knew I didn't have any money. He laughed as a response, and then smiled as he pulled a polystyrene carton with a half eaten burger and a few soggy ships sitting in it. "I am _not _eating that." I said in repulsion.

He grinned at me and picked up one of the chips. "Why? They're perfectly edible, probably only a few days old." I pulled a face as he moved his hand up to his mouth as if he were actually going to eat it.

"Liam, that's rank!" I said quickly, pulling the chip out of his hand. "You can't eat that, it's probably covered in germs and who knows what, yuk." I let the chip drop to the floor and he laughed at me again.

"I didn't actually mean eat it. I'm going to teach you how to burger dive." He said, still laughing at my outburst.

"The what?" I asked. Having grown up on the woodrush estate I knew almost ever y scam in the book, but I'd never heard of the burger dive before.

"Just watch." He said with another laugh, before scanning the surrounding area. As soon as he saw a busy-looking man in a suit he headed towards the man and promptly crashed into him, sending the chips and burger flying. "Hey!" He yelled in annoyance. "Watch were you're going, that cost me six quid." The man hastily apologized and handed Liam a tenner before bustling off again. Liam returned to me triumphantly, waggling the tenner in one hand. I laughed, I'd have to remember that one.

"What do you want then, pizza? Chips?" He asked with a smile. "No, wait. Ice cream." He decided as his eyes fixed on a nearby ice cream van. "Come on Ellie, I'll but you a double cone with all the toppings." He said, dragging me over to the van. I giggled as he ordered two humongous ice creams covered in sauces and sprinkles and sherbet. He passed one to me and then began work on his own monster ice cream. He finished it in five minutes flat, and he had to finish off mine as well because I felt sick after half of it.

After he'd finished Liam bought some chips and then we sat down on a nearby bench to eat them. I was surprised Liam had any room left in him, but I guess that's guys for you. "Where were you going then?" He asked after a while.

"London." I replied with a small laugh.

"There's no point to it you know, running away. You always end up getting dragged back in the end." Liam said as he crammed more chips in his mouth. "Elm tree's not half bad yanno, not compared to most places."

"I don't really care. That's not why I'm leaving." I said, slightly annoyed at him. I knew that it wasn't too bad a place, but who wants to be known as a skanky care kid for the rest of their lives.

"Then what's the problem." He sounded confused. I hesitated for a moment and then sighed. Liam was nice, and it wasn't as though I'd ever see him again after today, so why not tell him. I took a deep breath and then tried to explain to him about my dad going to prison. I left out the part about my mum, I told him I'd just seen him kill some randomer, I didn't much fancy him knowing my entire life story.

When I'd finished Liam seemed lost for words. It was the first time since I'd met him that he hadn't known what to say. "I guess it makes sense to leave." He said after a few minutes. I was slightly taken aback by this, so far everyone had said that the right thing to do would be to testify. I frowned a little at his response, and now it was my turn to struggle for words. "But," There it was, I knew that wouldn't be the end of it. "If it were me I don't think I'd feel safe knowing my dad wasn't in prison, he could come after you any time, he probably would, considering you're his only witness."

I pondered his words, it hadn't occurred to me before now that it would be in my dad's best interests to get rid of me, but it made sense considering the fact I was his daughter hadn't stopped him trying before now. But before I had a chance to reply Liam was dragging me to his feet. "Check it out." He said excitedly, pointing at a poster on a nearby lamppost. It was an advertisement for a funfair that was in town today only. "We _have_ to go!" He said excitedly. I raised my eyebrows a little, I'd be sixteen In February, and he'd been sixteen since September.

"We're a bit old for funfairs." I said sceptically.

He rolled his eyes. "You're never too old for funfairs, especially not this sort." He said, waggling the flyer in my face. The paper read, in luminous, green letters, HAROLD SHWARKOFF'S FAIR OF HORROR'S. Behind the flyer I caught sight of Liam's face, he was grinning happily in anticipation.

"Don't you ever stop smiling?" I said exasperatedly,

"No-p-e." He said, popping his lips on the p. "Come on Ellie, it will be a laugh, live a little for god's sake.

"Fuck it." I said in the end, jumping out of my seat. "Lead the way." Liam laughed and then grabbed my hand again, leading me towards the fair. It turned out to be ten times better than I'd imagined. The rides definitely weren't for little kids, they sent you spinning and soaring and turning in every direction, until your stomach was queasy and you stumbled around with dizziness. We snacked on hotdogs and candyfloss, and Liam won a whole load of money in the arcade, so we went on all the rides again.

The scariest ride was the fun house, although it was more like a ghost train without the train. It was a hell of a lot bigger than it looked, and hard to navigate through in the dark. Every now and then ghosts, zombies and other ghoulish creature would pop-out at you from the shadows, startlingly real looking for plastic dummies. Terrified, Liam and I raced through, screaming the entire way and clutching each other's hands. By the time we got out of there it was ten past twelve.

"Time to go home now kids." For a moment I panicked, thinking the large figure the voice came from was a policeman, but it was just one of the people who worked here, trying to get rid of everyone so they could shut the fair down. We'd spent most of the day at the funfair, so it was a shame to leave, but I felt my heart sink even further when I checked the watch. Liam! It's past midnight; there'll be no more trains!" I said in a panicked voice.

"Calm down Ellie. You can stay at mine, my brother won't mind, I think he's working tonight anyway. Then you can get a train in the morning." Liam said quickly, his voice soothing and calm. I smiled at him as we headed off down the street in what I assume was the direction he lived in. "It'll be a laugh, today's been fun yanno, I wish you didn't have to go." I found myself once again lost for words. I couldn't think of how to reply, I wished I didn't have to go as well. It wasn't so bad here, Woodrush would always be my home, but anything was better than the streets.

It didn't take us long to get to Liam's. He brought some duvet's through form his room and made up two beds on the two comfortable couches in his front room. Then he stuck a DVD in the TV and gestured towards one of the couches. I flopped down onto it, and nestled into the duvet that smelt sort of like Liam, while he chattered about the film that we were watching and supplied me with a never-ending supply of coke and popcorn.

I wasn't really listening though. I was thinking about Elm Tree. Maybe Liam was right, I'd never rest easy knowing my dad was still out there, and there was a good chance he'd get off if I didn't testify. Maybe he'd forgive me, for sending him down, and if he didn't at least he'd be safely behind bars and I'd be in a warm bed. I thought things over and over and over in my head, and by the end of the film I'd made up my mind, tomorrow I'd go back, however difficult it might be, I would go back.


	9. 9 Going back

My stomach was churning by the morning. I felt physically sick, but I knew I had to go back, I had to do what was right by my mum. I had to testify.

Liam was fast asleep on the other couch. His legs stuck out from under his thick duvet, revealing his bare feet, and his hair was messy and tussled. I grinned and then poked him in the side. "Wake up lazy, it's almost eleven o'clock." I said with a laugh. He groaned, rolled over and then blinked a little.

"Wassup." He mumbled sleepily. I laughed again as he blearily dragged himself off the couch.

"I'd better go soon." I said after a few moments of him yawning and stretching. He blinked again and stared at me.

"Sure, I'll walk with you to the train station." He said with a smile, looking a bit more awake now.

"Oh shut up. You know I'm not really leaving." I said with a slight sigh.

"Yeah I knew. It's harder to leave that place than you think, believe me." He laughed. "You would of yesterday though, it's a good job I bumped into you. Super Liam to the rescue." I rolled my eyes but chuckled all the same. "Come on, I'll make you some breakfast, eggy bread okay, it's the best thing I can make."

"Sure." I said, he held out his hand to pull me off the couch, and then we went into the kitchen and I slid onto one of the high stools at his breakfast bar. Liam's flat screamed bachelor pad, it was ultra-modern and spacious, with three bedrooms, Liam's, his brother's and a spare room, two bathrooms and then one big room that was the kitchen, the dining room and the lounge all in one. The entire north wall of the big room was made out of glass so that you could pretty much see the whole of Newcastle if you looked out of it, and the place was full of gadgets and commodities that were designed to reduce the amount of work you had to do.

Liam's eggy bread really was just as good as he'd boasted, but after he'd plated it up he sprinkled sugar over the top. "Urgh, that's rank." I said in disgust as he tucked into it.

"Nah, my brother showed me, he used to be in the scouts or something. It tastes really good, try it." He said, and then he poured sugar onto mine as well with a grin, ignoring my protests. I groaned a little and wrinkled my nose.

"Just cos you have weird taste in food, doesn't mean I have to stomach it as well." I said, pulling a tongue at him.

"Oh just eat it, I promise you'll like it."

I groaned again, but reluctantly cut off a little piece of the eggy bread and popped it in my mouth. "Oh." I said in surprise. "It's actually kind of nice." I cut another piece off and eagerly chewed it, the sugar went surprisingly well with the eggy bread, and I found myself wanting to put more on.

"See, I told you. Liam is always right." He declared triumphantly. I rolled my eyes yet again, but ate the rest of the eggy bread anyway. "If you wait an hour, my brother will be up, and he can take you home."

I considered that for a moment, it was still raining heavily outside, and it was a good half an hour walk, even if I didn't get lost. "Nah, that's okay." I found myself saying. "I like the walk, and I don't want to bother your brother." I hopped out of my stool and brushed the crumbs off my lap.

"You are… I mean, you are actually going to go back, right?" Liam asked uncertainly.

I laughed a little. "Course, I've made up my mind now, just you try and get rid of me."

"Well at least borrow my jacket; the one you've got is still wet." He said with a smile, shoving a purple zip-up hoody into my hands.

"Thanks." I pulled the jacket on, smiling at how thick and warm it felt, then Liam pulled me into a hug.

"It was a teacher training day today and yesterday, but we're in school tomorrow right? I guess I'll see you then?"

"Yeah, if I'm not six feet under. If they do murder me, I'll try not to get blood on your jacket." I joked, but inside I wasn't too confident that the social workers wouldn't murder me. Liam opened the door for me, and then waved goodbye as I got into the lift. The walk was long and wet, but I was sort of glad for the extra time before I got back to the house. I felt like there was a belt around my chest and stomach, which got tighter and tighter as I got closer to Elm Tree.

However awful the weather was, the air was deliciously fresh, and when I breathed in it made me feel a little better about the whole situation. However when the house came into view, there wouldn't be enough air in the world to make me feel better. I took one last deep breath before I strolled up to the front door and pressed the bell.

I heard the usual din coming from the house, and then Mike answered the door with a smile. "Hello, can I…." He started before trailing off when he realised it was me. "Ellie?" He asked in what seemed like disbelief. "You are in so much trouble. Where the hell have you been? You better start explaining yourself right now." He faltered a little towards the end, and he must have noticed me shivering because next he said. "Go upstairs and get warm okay, then come straight down to the office."

Gratefully I darted past him and then up the stairs, trying to ignore the looks I got from the other kids until finally I was in my bedroom. My room was chilly, thanks to the open window, so I shut it quickly and then turned the radiator right up. I set out some dry clothes and then peeled off the wet ones and lay them out on a chair. I draped Liam's hoody over the radiator so it would dry quicker and I could give it back to him tomorrow.

Once I felt a bit warmer, my face was a bit less blue and my toes had feeling again, I knew I couldn't put off going downstairs any longer. I took a deep breath, opened my bedroom door and headed downstairs.

"Where have you been for the past four days?" Mike said, the anger was clear in his face. He hadn't shouted yet, but I could see he was close. I was sat in the office, Mike right in front of me, Tracy on one side of him and Gina on the other, their faces all sharing identical looks of anger.

"Oh, here, there, everywhere." I replied casually. He glared at me and beside him Gina pursed her lips. "I came back didn't I?"

"That's not the point. We didn't know you were coming back, and as long as you're living here, we're responsible for you." Tracy yelled.

"We were worried, you could have been dead, yeah?" Gina chimed in, looking even angrier at my answer than she had before.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my seat. "I can look after myself you know."

Mike sighed; clearly he wanted me to apologise, to tell him where I'd been all weekend so he could forbid me from going back. But I wasn't going to, it wasn't so bad here, but no social worker was ever getting anything out of me, not if I could help it.

After a few more minutes of questioning Mike, Gina and Tracy gave up. "Right, well you'll be sanctioned for this, and you're grounded until further notice." Mike said slowly.

"I was already grounded." I pointed out with a small sarcastic smile.

Mike continued as if he hadn't even heard me. "You can go now, we'll discuss the sanction and then tell you what it is later." I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying something else sarcastic, and pissing them off even more, then I stood up and left the room.

"Hey Ellie." It was Rick, sitting on the couch near the office. He hadn't been there when I'd come back down here, so he can't have been there that long.

"Hi." I replied shortly, walking past him and heading for the stairs, but he stood up as well and followed me up to my bedroom, where he stood leaning against the doorframe. "What?" I asked him, and then bit my lip so I wouldn't be any ruder.

"I knew you'd come back, it's harder to leave here than you think." He said with a smile. I gritted my teeth, why does everyone keep saying that, it's just a crummy care home, maybe one of the better ones, but still just a care home.

"Get stuffed Rick, it sucks and I'm outta here as soon as possible." I bit my lip again, I probably shouldn't have said that.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter, I mean when I'm eighteen." I mumbled. "Did you want something?"

"Yeah actually, Liam texted me for your number, is it okay if I give it him." He said, an amused smirk playing over his lips.

"Yeah, sure." I said casually, but inside I was smiling. I wasn't sure why I was so happy that Liam wanted my number, I just was. "Just give it him, I don't care. But, ermm, I'm kind of tired. Can we talk later?"

He nodded and left the room, I smiled and then yawned. I wasn't sure why I was so tired, I guess I had stayed up pretty late last night, and the night before in the woods, and the night before with Alicia, and the night before in the park. So I guess it sort of made sense I was tired, I slipped under the duvet covers and picked up my copy of a midsummer night's dream. I'd only read one scene when my entire bedside table buzzed from the vibrations of my phone. I picked it up and opened the message from the unknown number.

_**Hey it's Liam :) Rick gave me your number. I hope you get signal in your grave, how did it go? Xxx**_

I smiled and saved the number as Liam, then quickly sent him a text back.

_**Hey c: the signal's not that bad actually, but my phone's running out of charge, would much appreciate it if you'd come and dig me up :L oh, sanctions, grounded, pretty much what I'd expected xxx**_

Straight after I'd sent the text my phone beeped to show that it was completely out of charge, and then it promptly shut down. Groaning I rolled out of bed and searched the room for my charger. I plugged it in and switched the phone back on to reveal a new text from Liam, I was about to read it when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I shouted, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"It's Tracy, can I come in?" She shouted through the wooden door.

"Huh?" I groaned. "Oh, alright then." She opened the door and came to perch on the end of my bed. She gave me one of her social worker smiles.

"How are you feeling?" She asked me, that annoying, overly sympathetic smile still plastered across her face.

"Fine." I replied dryly. She watched for any hints of sarcasm, but I kept my face as straight as possible.

She sighed heavily. "Ellie, you need to stop doing that. You can trust me you know, I know how you feel."

"Bollocks. You don't have a clue how I feel. Just cos you were in care doesn't make you the same as me, we both had completely different experiences, and we're different people. You get paid to care, if you didn't need the money would you honestly have this job, no, so stop pretending like you know how I feel." I blurted out. _Word vomit, word vomit, stop talking!_

For a moment Tracy looked stung, but then she stood up and gave me another smile. "I do care, I was offered a better job and I turned it down for this one. I do care about you, and if you ever want to talk you know where I am." I glared after her as she left the room and then flopped back onto the bed, I was about to pick up my book when I remembered the text from Liam.

_**Lol :) just remember what I showed you with the drainpipe, and being grounded won't make a difference. Glad you're okay, see you tomorrow :) xxxx**_

I grinned in spite of myself, and couldn't help but send him one back saying. _**See you tomorrow xxxx**_.


	10. 10 Prison tatt's and jam sandwhiches

**Authors note: Hey guys :) Thank you to the people who've reviewed, favourited or followed this story. Also thanks to immortalmorgana for posting such amazing and positive reviews on so many chapters. Sorry for not updating in a while, but I have been on holiday, I promise I'll update more often now.**

There was only one person on my mind as I walked through the school gates. Liam. The events of the other day were running endlessly through my head. I couldn't ever remember having had that much fun in my life, even with all the worry about my mum, the court case, the dumping ground I still had a great time.

I was so lost in thoughts of Liam and the other day that I hardly noticed when I bumped into Heather. She laughed as I collided with her, and then her face split into a mischievous grin. "P.E. next, don't fancy that much." She said with a groan.

I gulped, I'd forgotten we had P.E. first period and I gulped. "Me neither, I hate P.E." I said with as casual a laugh as I could manage. For the first time that morning my thoughts had strayed from Liam to the scars and bruises that were hidden beneath my uniform.

"Well if we don't get marked in registration we could just jib off for the day?" She suggested with a sly smile, I could tell she had plans for the day out of school, and last week I would have agreed straight away, but something made me hesitate. Liam. I'd been looking forward to seeing him, especially after him saying he was looking forward to seeing me last night. Something about being with him just made me incredible happy.

But even as I thought of Liam my hand had absentmindedly strayed to the still unhealed scars on my stomach, and I had to work not to wince as my fingers came into contact with the fragile skin. I bit my lip and then smiled at Heather. "Sounds like fun, way better than P.E."

"Knew you'd be up for it." She said almost triumphantly. "Hayden and Joe weren't so sure. Come on, they're waiting for us at the gates. We'd better make sure that none of the teachers see us." She turned on her heals and began to walk back the way we'd came, keeping a watchful eye out for any of the teachers on the way. I followed her closely, pulling my phone out and opening the most recent text from Liam.

I sighed a little and then put it back in my pocket, and walked a little closer to catch up with her. We reached the front gates where two guys were stood waiting. One of them was the boy who came to the café with us yesterday, I was pretty sure his name was Joe. The other who must be Hayden I vaguely recognised from my increasingly frequent trips behind the bike sheds. They smiled when they saw us coming and Hayden walked forward and draped his arm around Heather.

I gave the school one last look before following them down the road and into town. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the shops, between there and here is just rows and rows of terraced housing. Hayden and Heather were being all gross and coupley, which left Me and Joe trailing after them awkwardly.

"Your one of them Elm Tree lot then?" He asked after a while. He was a lot taller than me, quite leanly built and his face was kind of square, but he was still quite good-looking. He didn't smile much but when he did it seemed to take over his whole face and he looked really great.

I pointedly stared into the distance and stuck my chin out. "Elm Tree is a place where I happen to live." I said, trying not to sound annoyed. He just grunted and then lit a smoke and passed it to me. I gratefully took a drag, hoping he wouldn't bring up Elm Tree again. "Do you know where we're going? Heather wouldn't tell me." I said in an effort to change the subject.

"Sure, they want to get tattoos. Each other's names, like prison tat's on their fingers. There's this parlour in town, it's not too expensive, and they don't ask for ID during school hours." He said with a small shrug. "Might get one as well if I've got enough dosh, what about you?"

I frowned, taken aback by the information. Then I bit my lip as I thought it over. I was skint anyway, so I couldn't get one, but if I had money would I. Most of my friends had tattoos, and they looked pretty cool. I shrugged and took another drag of the ciggy before passing it back to him. "I'm broke." I said simply, even if I wanted one I didn't have a choice.

Joe just grunted, and then lit another smoke with the end of the last one. I smiled for a moment, remembering for a moment a friend from the estate who used to do the exact same thing all day, and then I sighed and decidedly tried not to think about the estate. It hurt too much. I still hadn't called Alicia, and I knew she'd be worried by now, so I made a mental note to do it later.

"I thought care kids got a load of pocket money." Joe said, pulling me from my thoughts.

It took a moment for his words to register, because the gap in the conversation was so long and because I'd been distracted. "I'm _not_ a care kid." I said once I'd understood what he said. "And I've only just started living at Elm Tree." I probably said a little more curtly than necessary, but the guy was getting up my nose now, and it was taking a lot of my self-control not too be very rude to him.

To try and calm myself down I tried to think about how much pocket money I was getting. It was a lot more than it was back at home, but I never got pocket money there so that didn't mean anything. I shrugged and then tried to change the subject again. "You got anything other than fags?" I asked with a smile.

"Sure." He replied, pulling a bottle of vodka out of his bag and passing it to me. I tried not to pull a face, straight vodka is something you drink when your already drunk, or as shots, it didn't have the best of flavour's. But I twisted off a cap and took a swig anyway, revelling in the familiar taste and the burning in my throat. Joe looked impressed at the swig, but as usual he didn't say much, and he just put the bottle back in his bag.

We passed the rest of the journey in silence. Occasionally catching parts of Heather and Hayden's conversation, but it was never very pleasant too listen to. After what felt like hours we reached the tattoo parlour. Heather was like an excitable six year old on Christmas morning as she paid for the tattoo, squealing and clapping her hands in anticipation. She didn't wince or show any sign of pain as the man wrote Hayden on her finger.

Hayden however was a different story. He yelped when the tattoo touched his skin, and spent the duration of the tattoo squeezing the arms of the chair and biting his lip so hard it bled while Joe and I giggled at his reaction. After Hayden and Heather had theirs done the man turned to look at Joe and I. He was one of those big, buff, biker guys covered in tattoo's and piercings, and the way he leered at us made me sure he was thinking something dodgy.

"Are yis' gettin' anyfin'?" He asked. His accent was strong and he didn't pronounce any of his words properly. I would've laughed if he hadn't been staring at me like that. Joe hadn't the man his cash and explained the tattoo he wanted on his arm. It was clear he was in pain but he bore it stoically and didn't make a single sound.

When he was finished with Joe's I looked at it admiringly. He'd gotten the words 'fuck it' written on his upper arm, surrounded by bright and skilled drawings of flames. "Do you want one like that?" The man asked, he was standing right behind me, although I hadn't realised until he'd spoken. I jumped and twisted round, but kept my ground, determined not to show him he scared me a bit. He looked a lot like my dad, so big and covered in tattoos with short hair, it was unnerving.

"Nah, I'm skint." I said quickly.

"Don't worry about it kiddo. Special deal, the hottest girl in here today gets a free tattoo." He said, still leering at me with that horrible smile on his face.

I tried not to swallow and sound confident as I spoke. "Alright then, I'll have one of those crosses, just a little one next to my knuckles. Here." I pointed to what looked like a less painful spot than Hayden's.

The man nodded and then gestured towards the seat while he got the needle ready. I bit my lip and braced myself.

It wasn't as painful as I expected, but it still hurt quite a lot and it was an effort not to gasp in pain as the needle went in. Afterwards the man put a bandage on it so it wouldn't get infected and then he smiled at me in that creepy way again. "If you want a bigger one next time that's no problem. Come here anytime, maybe without your friends next time."

I took a deep breath and gave him a huge smile. "Sure, sounds like fun. I'll see you soon." I said, even though I knew there was no chance I'd be setting foot in that shop ever again. I hopped off the chair and grabbed Heather's hand, pulling her out of she shop.

"Ouch, that's my finger." She said. I rolled my eyes but let go.

"What a creep." Hayden said with a laugh. I joined in, but inside I felt a bit queasy. You get treated like that all the time on the estate, being a girl lads seem to think they can say whatever to you. I was used to it, but it still made me feel a bit sick because it was how my dad had treated my mum. I shook my head, determined not to think about my mum or my dad, then I looked over at Heather.

"P.E. will be over now, shall we go back to school?" I said, thinking about Liam. Heather snorted and Hayden grinned.

"Don't be daft Ellie. We're free for the day because we never got marked in. Shall we go down the park, Ice cream on me." She said with a giggle, linking hands with Hayden and pulling him in the direction of the park. I looked at Joe and shrugged, then we sloped off after them.

We sat on the grass for a while, smoking and daring each other to drink more of the vodka. It was clear Heather was more than tipsy by the time we finished it. She was all giggly and couldn't walk in a straight line. I couldn't help but laugh at her. But it was hard to really enjoy myself, it reminded me too much of the park back on the estate.

After a while I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket and pulled it out to find a text from Liam. **Hey**_**,**_it read, _**are you okay? Are you bunking? Xxxx **_I bit my lip and sighed. Feeling guilty about not texting him earlier.

**Bunking. I'm on my way back now though, see you at lunch. :) xxxx **I sent the text back as soon as I could. There was no reply for a few minutes, and then I got one that simply said.

**Okay xxxx**

I put my phone away and stood up. "Come on guys, it's Drama after lunch, that's always a laugh, and I'm starving." They didn't look too impressed, but they stood up anyway and we made our painstakingly slow way back to school. It was halfway through lunch by the time we finally got there, and I was so eager to find Liam that I barely said bye to the others as they slunk off towards the bike sheds.

Liam was exactly where I thought he'd be, sitting on the field next to the football pitch with all his friends. I grinned when I saw him and sped up, he waved happily and gestured to the spare piece of ground next to him. I flopped down and then pulled my jam sandwiches out of my bag. "Everyone, this is Ellie." He said with a smile. "Ellie this is everyone…" He reeled of a long list of names that I would never remember, and everybody smiled and said hello before going back to their separate conversations.

Liam laughed when he saw my sandwiches. "Not very healthy." He commented with a grin. "But they look pretty tasty. I grinned and broke some off for him. He ate it in two bites then smiled happily and pulled out his own lunch of M&M's and cheese sandwiches.

"Who were you with this morning?" He asked me as he munched on M&M's.

"Oh, ermm, Heather Dunkirk, Joe and Hayden." I said, hoping I'd gotten Heather's second name right. For a moment I saw an unrecognisable emotion flit across Liam's face, what was it, annoyance, disapproval, hate? I couldn't tell it was there for so little time. But even after it was gone he didn't look very happy.

"The bike shed lot?" He asked, eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, trying as hard as I could not to sound confrontational.

He frowned again but then his face softened into a smile, and he started wittering on about the maths lesson he'd had earlier. I decided not to pursue the subject of his obvious annoyance with 'the bike shed lot' and just enjoy the afternoon with him.

"Are you doing anything this weekend?" He asked with a grin. I sighed dismally and shook my head. "Well do you want to do something?"

"I'm grounded remember." I said with another sigh. He laughed as if that meant nothing, but I wasn't stupid, I knew that the social workers would notice if I snuck out this weekend, and then I really would be in shit.

"Okay, then I'll come over to the DG." He said, his grin, if possible, getting bigger. "I haven't been over in a while actually. It's high time I beat Frank at football again."

"Sounds like fun." I said with a smile.

"I hope Gina's cooking, I miss her curries." He said wistfully.

"It's gotta be better living with your brother though." I pointed out with a laugh. Although I had to admit Gina's meals were a lot better than the TV trays my mum would serve up, on the off chance she was in the mood to cook.

"Well yeah. Jack's great, but sometimes I do miss the DG." He said. I frowned a little, why would anybody miss the DG. It might be better than living rough, but it still sucks being a care kid. "It's just like, there's always something going on there, you know. Sometimes living with my brother can be kind of, I don't know, boring." I considered that for a moment, I hadn't really been living there long, so I couldn't really comment on that. Before I could say anything though, Liam was grinning again and chattering about one of his favourite TV shows.

I smiled, it was so easy being with Liam. It just felt right, the conversation flowed without gaps or awkward pauses. It was as easy as breathing.


	11. 11 Keepy uppys and pizza night

**Authors note: Hey guys, thanks again for the reviews, they make me smile :) Bit of a short chapter, but I hope you enjoy it :)**

"Could you go over it again? Try to remember the times and all the details, it's important."

I rolled my eyes and ran my hand through my hair. "I already told you." I muttered. I was sat in an office with Brenda Walls, the prosecutor in my dad's case. She was, I'd expected, more than just annoying. Tracy brought me here about an hour ago, and I've experienced more boredom in that hour than ever before. Tracy was sat in the corner of the room, and so far she'd done a pretty good job of melting into the shadows. She hadn't said a word. "Well they were arguing the night before."

"What about?" She asked, taking notes on a pad of paper. I'd been over this so many times I could hardly believe she had anything else to write.

"I don't know. They always argued, i never paid any attention." I said with a shrug. How did she expect me to remember such miniscule details? "It was probably about money, they argued about that a lot. My dad stormed out at about eleven."

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know, probably the pub. The three dragons and the lion, he always went there. It closes at one, and usually that when he comes home. Only he didn't. He wasn't there when I woke up. That was pretty normal though, I thought he was probably passed out somewhere. My mum was asleep, and she got angry if I woke her up so I left." I said slowly. Repeating what happened for the fourth time.

"Where did you go?" She asked, reading over her notes.

"Well, I should've gone to school, but I didn't. I went down the local park with some of my friends. I stayed there till about six, and then I went home. When I got home my dad was sitting in his chair in the living room, still drinking. He started having a go at me, saying he'd call from the school and…" I faltered for a moment and took a deep breath.

"What did he say, his exact words?" She asked, leaning further forwards.

"He said he didn't need that kind of trouble, and if I ever cut school again he'd break my neck. Then he hit me, worse than ever, again and again. Mum came in the room and he started on her, he was yelling at her about something, some man. He was so angry, and so drunk that I didn't really understand what he was saying. He was hitting her, and then he stormed out again. That was about seven. I thought he'd stay back all night, but he didn't. He came back about half eight, screaming and shouting his head off. When my mum shouted back, he pulled out a knife."

"He said he was sick of her, of her holding him back, of her cheating on him. He said he was going to teach her a lesson." I stopped again. I didn't want to repeat what he said again, those sick words and the things he did still run through my head at night. "Look lady. I've already said it three times. It ain't changed." I scowled and then tapped my fingers impatiently on the desk.

I saw a hint of a smile on her face, then she nodded and put her notes in her briefcase. "Okay Ellie. Thanks for your help. That's probably all I'll need from you, just remember the things I said, and I guess I'll see you in court."

"It's an unfortunate even that can't be helped." I said with a smile, then I picked up my bag and walked out with Tracy following me.

"I think that went well." She said with a smile, leading me out of the building and towards her crappy car. She opened the passenger door for me and then got into the driver's seat. "Back to the dumping ground then." She turned the key and the car growled unhealthily.

"Yep." I said with a slight sigh. It's been two weeks since I ran off for the weekend, and Mike's still not letting up about me being grounded. So that means another Saturday stuck in the DG. Usually I hate being stuck inside. I end up begging Liam to come round or texting Heather all day, it's fucking boring.

Today I'm kind of glad about it though. I don't really feel like going out, and after talking about all that night as if it were completely normal to Brenda, I sort of feel a bit surreal. Like I just want to be on my own.

The whole way home Tracy natters about pointless things, I smile and act interested right up until we pull into the driveway at Elm Tree. I grab my bag and slip out of the car, there's a few kids playing in the garden, but right now I just want to go upstairs. I smile and say hi to Carmen and Lily who are sat at the bottom of the stairs before running up them.

I dump my bag on the floor of my bedroom and then collapse into my bed. It's warm and soft and the mattress sinks around me. I smile and pull out my iPod, All Time Low rings through the headphones and I pull out a midsummer night's dream.

I don't know what it is about that book that I love so much. I think it's the way the characters are able to escape their shitty lives, into a world of fairies and magic, and how it has a happy ending. It's so unlike real-life that sometimes it makes me want to throw it at the wall and cry, but I never do because I can never seem to tear myself away from it. I always seem to lose track of time when I read it, it's wonderful.

Mike and the others must've realised I didn't want to be disturbed, because they don't come up to talk to me, even when I skip lunch. When I finish the book I close my eyes and breathe deeply, listening to each sound and rhythm in the music. I find myself absentmindedly fingering the plaster that I put on my finger when I took the bandage off. Mike and Gina still don't know about the tattoo, and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to them finding out.

After a few hours I hear a knock on the door. I groan and roll my eyes, "What?" I growl. It's so annoying the way things are here, back home I could go for days without speaking to anyone. Mum just sat round all day, sometimes sleeping and sometimes just sitting there, with a glazed look. If dad was home he wouldn't pay any attention to me unless he was angry. I liked it like that, not having people watching my every move, just letting me do whatever. Here you can't go a few hours without someone bothering you.

"Easy Ellie. It's Liam." A voice laughs from the other side of the door.

"Oh." Is all I can manage. Liam's fun to hang out with, and he always manages to cheer me up, but I'm just not in the mood today. I grind my teeth together, wishing that Gina or Mike had told him not to bother me, because I feel bad telling him to go away.

I slip of the bed and open the door for him, smiling as best as I can. Have I ever mentioned that I should probably be an actor, if I have one skill in the world it's lying and pretending everything's okay. I guess I've been doing it so long that it just comes naturally. It's no different today, Liam seems convinced by my fake smile, and he sits down on the end of my bed with a relaxed posture, grinning cheekily.

I roll my eyes at him, sitting on my bed as if this were his room. "You didn't say you were coming over."

He looks up at me with a pained expression, as if I'd just broken his heart. "You, you don't want me here?" He says, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. I stifle a giggle and then sit down next to him. "Come on Ellie, I thought we'd go out."

"You know I can't." I say miserably.

"What's wrong with your finger?" He asks suddenly. I blink a little, taken aback by the sudden question, and then glance down at the finger he's staring at. "Only you've been wearing that plaster for ages." With a small laugh I peel the plaster of revealing the pitch black cross. He gasps and then grins. "Cool. Did you get that when you skipped school the other week?"

I nod, surprised at how much he can guess about me. "Okay so you can't go out, when Mike and Gina find out about that you'll be in enough trouble as it is. Shall we go hang out in the garden for a bit?" He says with a laugh.

"Sure." I say with a smile, standing up and then following him down the stairs.

"Hang on a second Ellie, where are you going?" Mike said sternly just as we were about to walk out the door. I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"Keep your hair on, we're only going into the garden." I said with a sigh.

"Okay then. But it's tea soon, you going to stay for dinner Liam, its pizza night." He said with a smile.

"Depends who's cooking." He laughed, Mike joined in and then told us we were ordering it in. "I'll stay then. Come on Ellie, I bet I can beat you at football." He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the garden.

"You're probably right, I've never really played football before." I say with a giggle, flopping down on the grass. It's kind of cold today, with drizzle on and off so none of the kids are in the garden. It kind of reminds me of the first day I spent with Liam, the park and the funfair. I smiled at the memory, pretending to watch him as he bragged about his football skills.

We sat out there for a moment, Liam trying to explain football to me, and me pretending to be interested. The thing was that no matter how much my friends loved it, I just never got it, it just seemed like a load of overpaid, sweaty men kicking a ball round a field to me. I didn't understand the mania, but Liam seemed pretty into it, so I pretended to be interested for his sake.

"So did you get up to much this morning?" He asked after a while. He was stood in front of me with a football, keeping it up in the air by bouncing it on his knee, foot and occasionally head. I bit my lip and fell silent. He must've seen the change in my manner because he frowned and stopped messing about with the football. "What? Is something up Ellie?"

I considered telling him, and I almost did when I heard voices behind me. It was Carmen and Lily. "You should be able to come over tomorrow Cam said."

"Are you sure, remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah, but Cam will be there this time, trust me, it'll be fine."

"Okay. Oh hi Liam, Ellie." Carmen said, sitting down next me. I smiled pleasantly at her, but inside I was willing her to go away. All the kids here seemed pretty nice, but I hated having to live with them. It's like you can't get five minutes peace.

"Hi Carmen." Liam said with a grin.

"Was I… interrupting something?" She asked with a giggle. Lily joined in and then starting making kissy noises.

"Get lost girls." Liam said, his face had turned a bright red colour and he looked kind of annoyed. The girls giggled again and then stood up and walked into the house, still making kissy noises as they went.

Liam laughed awkwardly and then sighed. "That's one thing I don't miss about this place. The privacy." I laughed and then smiled uncomfortably. "I know a place we'll be more private." He grabbed my hand and then led me towards the trees. He picked his way between a few slender trunks until we came into a tiny clearing with two old but comfortable looking chairs. "This is more like it" He said with a grin.

He sat down on the grassy floor, pulling me down with him and then smiled. "I always used to come here whenever I needed to think about stuff, yanno."

"I didn't know it was here." I said with a laugh. I realised with a smile that we were still holding hands, but I made no attempt to move mine, and neither did he.

"So what did you do this morning?" He asked, his wide grin back on his face.

I hesitated a moment, and then smiled at him. I could trust Liam, I decided. "I was talking to the prosecutor, you know in my dad's case. She was going over my statement. It was boring really." I said breezily. He studied my calm demeanour closely, and then decided I wasn't upset and smiled.

I smile back. Something about sitting here with Liam feels so right. But in the back of my head alarm bells are ringing as he shuffles a little closer. This isn't me. I don't do relationships, everything in my life turns to shit eventually, and I don't want to mess Liam up with my endless crap. I've never had a boyfriend before. I've had one night things at parties, or a couple of days fling. But I've never had a boyfriend, I've never had a relationship with any meaning in it, and I don't want to. Look what it did to my mum, she fell so hard for my dad that she couldn't leave him, even when he was getting drunk every night and beating her up, even when he started on me, even when he got so jealous he'd stop her from leaving the house for weeks on end. He took everything he wanted from her and gave her nothing in return. Look what happened to her in the end. No way do I want to get mixed up in a relationship.

Before I have time to say anything though I hear Gina shouting from the house. "Ellie. You better still be in the garden. Its tea, hurry up and get inside." I laugh a little, wondering how furious they'd be if we didn't come in.

"Come on Liam. It's pizza after all." I said with a laugh, pulling him to his feet. We walked towards the house, and, even though every bone in my body told me it was a bad idea, I didn't try to let go when he kept hold of my hand.

**Go on, press the review button. You know you want to. I don't care if it's anonymous or constructive criticism, or even if you tell me you hate the entire story (as long as you say why), reviews still make me smile :)**


	12. 12 party planning and shameless flirtin

**Authors note: nother update for you :) This is pretty quick for me, but I'm hoping I can update more like this over the remainder of the holidays, the regularity will probably go back down when we have to go back to school. Sigh haha. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, I own Ellie, and Heather, and a few other people. But own none of the characters or storyline's the BBC made up.**

I decided that night that I was not going to have any romantic relations with Liam whatsoever. I was not going to crush on him, flirt with him, or lead him on in any way whatsoever. Even if he was really sweet and totally hot, it didn't matter, relationships only tie you down. In fact there was no way Liam would be interested in me like that anyway, he could get any girl, so he wouldn't go for me. I was just another messed up care-kid who nobody gave a shit about.

So, that in mind, I was absolutely ready to face him on Monday and pursue our strictly non-romantic relationship, if only his smile wasn't so fucking cute.

"Hey Ellie." He said with a huge grin, as I flopped into my chair in form. I still sat behind him and Rick, next to the window so I could gaze out of it when I got bored.

"Hey Liam." I grinned back.

"No talking!" Our form tutor yelled from the front. "Mister O'Donovan, would you like to turn around please." Liam grinned and rolled his eyes, but turned around to face the front. I drifted off, not bothering to listen to his endless drone about school notices, instead I started to doodle on the front of my planner.

"Hey Ellie. Psst, Ellie." I heard somebody whisper, I looked up but couldn't see anyone looking to me so I continued my doodling. There was another Ellie in the form, so I figured the whisperer must want them, not me. "Oh for fucks sake Ellie, over here." A rubber hit me squarely on the side of the head, and I turned to see who threw it. Heather was grinning at me from the other side of the classroom.

She held up a screwed up ball of paper in her hand and chucked it to me. I opened it carefully, so it didn't rip, and then read her scrawly writing.

_Hayden's having a party this Saturday. His parents are away so it's anything goes, bring booze and friends. You better be there :)_

I grinned at her and gave a thumbs up sign just as Mister Hankin said we can go to first period. "Not you Ellie." He caught me just as I was about to leave. I rolled my eyes but turned round to face him. He waited until everyone had left the classroom, and then he gave me one of those smiles. I made no effort to return it.

"You've been here for nearly three weeks now." He said matter-of-factly.

"Yes?" I asked, wondering where this was going.

"Well every term we have what we call progress meetings for, err, certain pupils." He said slowly, obviously choosing his words carefully. He needn't have bothered, I got it, it was for the fuck-up, problem kids, and I was ready to bet he was telling me this cos I was on the list. "Yours is next Friday." He handed me an envelope that was addressed to 'the parent or guardian of Elizabeth Hardy.'

"Could you please pass this on too your parents, I mean care workers, sorry." He said, coughing loudly. I took the letter and examined it closely.

"Sure." I said with a shrug, turning to leave.

"Oh and Ellie, I'm sure I can trust you to deliver it to the head of your establishment intact, as in unopened." He said in a stern voice with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, yeah." I said with a roll of my eyes. He opened his mouth to tell me my attitude was inappropriate or whatever, but I was already out the door. As soon as I'd turned the corner I opened the envelope carefully, so that I'd be able to reseal it later, then I read the letter with growing worry.

_Dear reader,_ it read_, after much discussion with both yourself and members of the senior leadership team, we have come to the conclusion that Elizabeth should be placed on the record list. This is not as punishment or retribution, but merely because we believe she needs extra support and guidance. Being placed on this list means there will be half-termly progress meeting including Elizabeth, a member of staff and one of her legal guardians. Although this meeting would usually be at the end of half-term, we have decided to schedule it to next Friday considering Elizabeth has only just been placed on the list. At the meeting we will discuss further actions and measures we will be putting in place, and also the other benefits available to students on the record list. The meeting will be _

_We look forward to seeing you next Friday, yours sincerely, Mr Hargreaves._

I groaned angrily. What was it about adults that made them think they had a right to poke their noses into my business? I slipped the letter back into its envelope and shoved it into my bag, thinking it over as I headed to my next lesson.

I was still thinking about it when I got to history, I sat at the back with Heather, gazing out of the window. Our history teacher was new, the sort of fresh out of college, jean wearing over, over enthusiastic type, and he let us talk as long as we were working. Telling a class of fifteen and sixteen year olds they can talk as much as they want is never really a good idea, although I'll never complain, and it wasn't long before none of us were doing any work at all.

Heather kept up a constant stream of conversation. I'd gotten used to her way of doing things over the past two weeks. I was fairly sure she would probably end up dead before she hit her twenties, because it was pretty clear her idea of living life to the full was taking it too far. With Heather no moment could be silent, someone had to be talking, usually her, and she didn't care if you didn't offer much to the conversation but yes's and no's. Which was perfect for me as it meant I didn't really have to listen.

Whereas a lot of people seemed to enjoy just doing nothing, Heather was not one of those people. Her life seemed jam packed full of events. She'd go from home to a mates, to town, to a mates, out on the town, to a party, to a mates, then home in the morning. If she was feeling like it she'd squash school in their too. It was too busy for me, I was used to spending a whole day chilling in the park, and then maybe going out later if we felt like it at the time. Heather was up for anything. As a motto I quite liked the whole, I'll try anything thing, but when it comes to nicking dope off a drug dealer well known for knife crimes, I draw the line. I think the problem is that Heather has grown up as a posh kid, her parents have no idea what she's like and think she's still just a studious little girl. As a posh kid she never learnt which places in Newcastle you just don't go after dark, and who you just don't cross, and one day it'll land her in a whole heap of trouble.

"This party is going to be amazing. There are loads of people coming, and Hayden's is blowing two hundred pounds on booze. He's going to get his mother to get him some, yanno, stuff, as well." She said with a huge grin. I whistled under my breath, two hundred quid was a lot of money to spend on booze, but I got the idea that Hayden wanted this party to achieve party of the year status, and for that you had to have drink.

"Stuff?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow. Heather was funny like that, she was so insistent on keeping her entire life a secret from her parents that she wouldn't even say some things in front of us in case she slipped up in front of them.

She rolled her eyes. "Grow up Ellie, you know what I mean, pills, weed, tabs, DRUGS for fucks sake." The boys in front of us turned and gave us questioning looks, I was about to tell them if they said anything they were dead, when Heather butted in. "Talking 'bout the party on Saturday, you two are coming right?" They shared a grin, nodded, and then went back to their work. Heather rolled her eyes. "Nosy sods." She muttered.

I stifled a giggle and then wrote down some of the answers on the sheet. Heather raised her eyebrows. "Why are you bothering if he isn't making us?" She asks, obviously confused.

I shrug, "I'm stuck here, I might as well do the work." She frowns again and then I sigh and tell her about the stupid progress meeting.

She laughs loudly, "Oh, haha, you're on the record list. Wow, and after three weeks, that must be a record. You haven't even done anything that bad."

I think that over, she's right; I haven't done anything too bad. I've gotten into one or two fights with other kids, argued with a few teachers, skipped a bunch of lessons, and I was caught 'fornicating' (as the teacher put it) with a boy in a supply cupboard. I guess the drinking and the smoking would be considered as bad by teachers, but we haven't been caught for that. I guess Saint Andrews standards are just a hell of a lot higher than Saint Aggie's.

I sighed, it probably had a lot to do with Mike as well. It did say in the letter, 'through discussion with the senior leadership team and yourself'. The school probably phoned up to tell him, and he made a big deal of it and got me put on this record list or whatever. I was getting sick to the back teeth of being controlled by social workers.

"So you're definitely coming to this party right. Are you still grounded? Surely your parents have let you off already?" She asked with another grin.

I sighed, I still hadn't had the whole 'I'm in care' conversation with Heather, or any of the 'bike shed smokers' as they seemed to be known through the school. They still thought I lived on Woodrush, and technically I wasn't lying, because nobody had outright asked me where I lived, they'd just assumed because I used to live there and one of the guys recognised me. I wouldn't lie if they asked, but I was secretly hoping that would never occur, after all, who wants to be just another care kid.

"I mean seriously, this grounding has gone on forever, your parents are well strict, what did you even do?" She said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, I am still grounded. But don't worry it won't be an issue." I grinned at her hoping I'd remembered my drainpipe climbing skills from Liam. Now that I'd gotten that letter I was pretty sure Mike wasn't going to let up about bring grounded till afterwards, he was still certain I was about to make a break for it, and right now I was kinda gravitating towards it.

I really hated social workers. All my life my dad had been a controlling bastard to my mum, and me as well sometimes, although mostly he didn't give a shit about me. When she wasn't drugged or too depressed she used to give me little snippets of advice, and one thing she always used to say was not to let people control you. I guess I've been letting her down ever since I was taken into care.

"You said I can bring anybody?" I asked Heather, trying to think of anyone but my mum.

"Mhm." She mumbled with a nod, not really paying attention as she texted away on her phone. I smiled, I knew exactly who I was going to invite.

I was stood in the girls toilets, looking at my phone sitting in my hands. I hadn't hat the guts to call Lis or any of the others for the past two weeks. I felt so bad about telling them I was running away, and then ignoring all their texts when I was with Liam. I took a deep breath and then dialled Lis's number.

"Hello?" She answered almost instantly.

"Hey Lis, it's me. Sorry I haven't been in touch." I said sheepishly. I ran my hand through my hair and then did what I do best, lie. "I got all the way to London, but they caught me and dragged me back. I almost got sent to Leeds, but my social worker decided not to. They took my phone off me, I only just got all your texts. I'm really sorry Lis."

"It's alright. Don't worry, I figured something like that had probably happened." Lis said shakily. I sighed in a relieved way, I know that Lis only believed me because it was down the phone. It we were talking face-to-face she'd know I was lying straight away.

"Anyway, I'm still grounded but I can't meet up with you. But there's this party on Saturday. I'm going to that, and Heather said I could invite whoever. So do you want to come, bring Donny and the others." I said with a huge grin. Seeing Lis again would be amazing, especially at a party.

"Oooh a party!" Her voice lit up and I couldn't help but laugh. "Yes absolutely, but I thought you were grounded, and who's Heather?"

"Heather's a girl I sit next to in history, it's her boyfriend's party. And yes I'm grounded, but this is the party of the year, I'm not going to miss it, am i?" I say with a small laugh. Lis joins and for a second it feels like it used to, but then the moment is gone and I hear footsteps in the corridor.

"I have to go now Lis." I whisper into the phone. "I'm supposed to be in Chemistry, and I'll get in shit if they catch me. I'll text you the details later, yeah? See you on Saturday."

"Bye!" She laughs back. I can hear the excitement in her voice. If there's two things in the world Lis loves more than anything it's, a) doing absolutely nothing and, b) parties. To be honest she'll be into anything as long as there's booze involved. She's like Heather but way more street wise and relaxed.

I grin at that thought and then head over to chemistry, flopping into my seat next to Liam. He beams at me, and I can't help but return the smile as he explains the experiment to me. As we're burning some sort of white powder to see the colour of the flame we chat easily and mess about as much as you can in a chemistry lab without getting burnt.

After a while the subject of the party comes up. "Oh yeah, Simon invited me to that, not sure I'll bother though." He says with a smile.

I frown at him and then ask in a puzzled voice, "Why not? It'll be great."

"Not really my thing." He says with a laugh and a shrug.

"Oh come on Liam. It'll be fun, I'm going. There will be alcohol and loud music, and probably lots of easy girls. What more could a teenage boy want." I say, sticking my tongue out at him.

He laughs and then falls silent as the watchful eye of our chemistry teacher swings over to us. We pretend to be engrossed in the experiment for a few minutes before continuing the conversation. "Are you included in those easy girls?" He says with a cheeky grin.

I pretend to swat him with my chemistry text book and then smile. "Absolutely not. I always play hard to get."

He laughs, deep and long and then grins again, looking right into my eyes. "Well I'll definitely be coming if I get to see some of that." I smile back at him instantaneously, and then mentally slap myself.

What did I say last night. ABSOLUTELY, AND EXPLICITYLY NO FLIRTING. I sigh and then take a deep breath. I guess it doesn't hurt, just shameless flirting. One more line couldn't hurt. I widen my smile and then look right back at him. "Then I look forward to seeing you there."

**Hope you liked it, please review :) immortalmorgana, they are going to find out about her tattoo in the chapter after next, sorry for the wait. It's my GCSE results tomorrow, or should I say today because it's about 2 AM, wish me luck. I promise I'll try and update soon :)**


	13. 13 Sneaking out and late night kisses

**Hey guys :) Long-time no see, school started and now I'm doing a-levels I have a shitload more work to do, so I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I'm going to try and update more often now If I can.**

I made sure I kept as good as gold for the rest of that week. I wanted Mike and Gina to be on low alert this Saturday. I was pretty sure I'd be grounded for life when I came back, but the party would be worth that. If I was caught on my way out I'd be grounded and miss the party. If I wanted to escape they couldn't suspect a thing.

And of course they didn't. Like I said, I'm a pretty good actor. I did everything they asked, all my chores, wasn't rude, ate all my food, didn't skip school and didn't get into any fights. I debated long and hard over whether to give them the letter though, in the end I did because a) when they found out I hadn't given it to them my new good girl status would be shattered, and b) Mike was probably expecting it.

My theory was confirmed when he opened the letter and nodded knowingly. I rolled my eyes and bit back a sharp, sarcastic comment. "What is it?" I asked, pretending I hadn't read the letter. "Hankin wouldn't tell me, he just said it was a meeting or something. I don't know, I don't usually listen to him."

Mike laughed and then gestured for me to take a seat. I tried to suppress a groan, I was in his office, but not to talk about stuff, just to hand him the letter. With a sigh I sat down and leaned back in the chair. I'd only been here three weeks, and even I knew if Mike asked you to sit down in his office, you probably needed to make yourself comfortable. He leaned over and pushed the door shut, then sat in his own chair and smiled at me.

"I've been chatting with the school, and we feel that, given your history and more," He coughed a little," recent events, we felt it might be appropriate if you were given a little extra support. Usually we'd allow you time to settle in before worrying about this sort of thing, but as this is year eleven, and your exams are at the end of this year, if you want to pass we think this is a good idea."

"So it's for fuck-ups?" I asked, my act dropping for a moment.

Mike narrowed his eyes and sighed. "No Ellie. It's not for fuck-ups." He said in an exasperated tone. My eyes widened, I'd never heard him swear before, even if he was just repeating what I'd said. "It's for kids who've had a rough time of it, their schoolwork has slumped and they need to sort that out before the exams. You do want to pass your exams don't you?"

I would've loved to tell him where he could put his fucking letter, and had to bite my lip to stop the words flying out of my mouth. I took a deep breath and tried to think about his other question instead. _You do want to pass your exams, don't you?"_ I'd never really thought about it if I was honest. School was just a place I went because I had too, and jibbed off whenever I could. I'd never really thought about how passing my exams could benefit me. Most people who live on Woodrush don't have a work ethic. My parents and myself included. It's usually an endless cycle, you have kids, they leave school as soon as they can, sign on, have kids that do the same thing, and then they have kids who do the same thing.

Of course there are those who do well in their exams, they go to uni, get a nice job, nice house. But I'd never pictured that as me, my dad always said I was too thick for exams anyway. I didn't like to plan for the future because it was just too unpredictable. But now I was in care maybe things would be different, clearly the care workers gave a shed load of shit more than my parents ever did about school. Just forgetting about it wasn't going to be an option. Maybe that would be a good thing, I didn't want to end up like my mum after all.

"Course I do." I said in a convincing voice. "Especially now I'm at a better school." Mike frowned, clearly confused by my change of attitude, and I decided to stop laying it on quite so thick.

"So you're okay with this." He asked, still frowning.

"Were you expecting me to kick up a fuss?" I asked with a laugh.

He laughed along with me and then smiled. "Well yes, actually I was."

I smiled back at him. No need to create an argument over something when I needed him to think I'd changed for the better, there' be plenty of time for a fight next week, and believe me there would be a fight. No way was I going to let these stupid social workers have one more way of spying on me. I didn't need 'extra support and guidance' what I needed was to go home. Not where I lived, that was just my flat, but I needed to go back to Woodrush, that was my home.

Much to Mike's disbelief I said thank you as pleasantly as I could manage, and then left the room with a smile. Then I continued the act all week, I almost felt sorry for him, lulling him into such a low sense of security. But it couldn't be helped.

By the time Saturday came Mike and Gina were eating out of the palm of my hand, like I said I'm good at lying, even Tracy seemed convinced, and she knows all the tricks in the book by heart. My plan went as smoothly as I could have hopped. In the morning I put a little black eye shadow under my eyes, only the slightest bit, and then came downstairs yawning. I complained to anyone who would listen how little sleep I got last night.

I spent the rest of the day yawning and doing my very best to look tired, then as soon as I'd finished dinner at six I excused myself and loudly announced that I was thinking of having an early night before going upstairs. I got a shower and washed my hair, and then I slipped into my room. I rooted through my cupboard until I found a pair of denim hot pants and an old sort of see through white tee shirt with the Jack Daniels logo on the front in black.

The tee shirt had been on sale in a shop, and I'd thought it looked awful, it may have been see through, but it wasn't the right cut for going out, too baggy with sleeves and a high neckline. Lis said it had potential though and bought two. She cut the sleeves and neckline's off, and then cut a bunch of slashes in the back of it so it was perfect for parties. I smiled as I remembered she gave me one as a birthday present.

I pulled the tee shirt and shorts on, then examined the outfit in the mirror before pulling on some slippers and putting a dressing gown on top. I went downstairs and knocked on Mike's door, making a show of yawning loudly. "I know it's early but I'm really tired, I slept really bad last night. I think I was just worried about yanno, stuff. Could you tell nobody to disturb me." He smiled and took in my dressing gown, towel and slippers and then nodded. I muttered thank you before going back upstairs.

I put on some make-up and then sorted my hair before pulling on my converse. I switched off the light and then shoved a bunch of clothes and pillows under the mattress so if anyone looked in they would think I was in bed. Then I clambered onto the window ledge, jumped onto the drainpipe and shimmied down it just like Liam had taught me.

Climbing down it made me think of Liam, I still wasn't sure if he was coming tonight, as he was yet to give me a straight answer. I'd managed to mostly keep my flirting to a minimum this week, but I half hoped he wouldn't come to the party in case I cracked. I landed deftly on the gravel, careful not to make a sound, and hid under the protection of the trees quickly. Then, feeling rather like a cat burglar, I snuck over to the wall and climbed over it with skill.

I got to the party pretty quickly, Hayden's house wasn't too far from Elm Tree, and I smiled happily when I got there. I'd timed my arrival to perfection, the party was in full swing, but I hadn't missed any of the fun. Grinning I texted the address to Lis and then went inside. The music was blaring, loud and bold, techno dance music that practically made the house shake. I said hey to Hayden and Heather who were eating each other's faces on one of the couches, then I grabbed a drink and joined the others on the dance floor.

It wasn't long before I was dancing with some lad called Johnno, he was pretty good-looking, dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, defined features, angular jaw and a muscular chest. I interlocked my fingers with his and swayed to the music. I was just getting into it when he leant towards me and kissed me. It wasn't a very long kiss, a few seconds maybe, but I made no effort to stop him, and when he pulled away what I saw made my stomach lurch.

Liam was stood in the doorway, a look of horror and dejection on his face. After a few seconds of us staring at each other he turned around and was gone. Johnno laughed and shook his head, leaning in for another kiss, but I pulled my hands out of his, and before I knew it I was following Liam into the back garden.

"Liam!" I shouted, my panic rising when I couldn't see him in the immense garden. A little movement in the darkness caught my eye, and I turned my head to see a figure leaning against the wall, a bottle of beer in his hand. "Liam, Liam please." I shouted again, running over to him.

He turned his head away and started walking but I grabbed his hand. "Please, Liam please don't go, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." I said, a horrible uneasy feeling growing in my stomach.

He wrenched his hand out of mine. "I thought you liked me." He said in a quiet voice, the hurt ringing through his tone and making my head ache. "I thought you actually gave a damn about me!" His voice rose to a shout before he looked away. "Silly me. You just fuck with people's heads, right?"

"No! Liam, I do like you. I thought I liked you too much." I said quietly, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them. I bit my lip hard to stop anything else spilling out.

"Funny way of showing it. Cut the crap Ellie, and just leave me alone." His voice was hard and sharp, it made me feel sick inside and I barely even noticed when tears spilled down my cheeks. He shook his head and then walked towards the garden gate.

"I lied to you." I yelled after him in desperation.

He barely even acknowledged it, but I thought I heard him grunt, 'I'm not surprised."

"I lied to you about my dad, and I'm sorry." I said, more tears falling onto the ground. I couldn't believe I'd been so stupid, I had something good with Liam, and I'd ruined it all in the space of a few minutes because I was too afraid of what might happen.

"So he'd not even in prison? Has anything you've told me been true Ellie?" Liam had stopped walking now and turned around to glare at me.

"No, he is in prison. But not because he killed somebody on the streets like I told you." My entire body was shaking now, wracking with barely supressed sobs. I'd wanted so bad for Liam to think I was normal, and now I was about to ruin it, like I ruin everything. "He killed my mum, Liam. He used to hit her all the time, and me.

" And after he killed her he tried to kill me. I'll always have scars on my stomach, I'm lucky to be alive and I'll never forgive him. And I can't forgive my mum either, for staying with him for so long. I don't want to end up like her Liam, I can't end up like her. I told myself if I never fell in love it would never happen. And I'm sorry for being so stupid." I looked at the ground, unable to face him, and then suddenly I felt a warm arm around my cold shoulders.

His touch was light and gentle, and when I looked up his face was so close to mine our noses could've been touching, and then he leaned in and kissed me.


	14. 14 Campfires and brand new boyfriends

**Bit of a short chapter I know. But I'm working on a longer one for their date. Sorry it's taking me so long to update, I have no excuses, please feel free to hate on me for it, I deserve it :)**

Liam was an amazing kisser. A really amazing kisser. In fact he may well be, hands down, the best kisser I have ever had the fortune to kiss. It was sweet and gentle, but somehow downright fucking hot at the same time. His hands were running through my hair, while mine were firmly plantes on his back. I could feel the hadr muscle of his chest we were so close, and it felt nice.

I'm not sure how long we would have stood there for, exploring each other's mouths, just basking in the amazing feeling of that moment. Unfortunately I didn't find out, a siren sounded from the other side of the house. "Shit." Liam cursed, reluctantly pulling away from me. "Come on, we'd better run." He grabbed my hand and made for the gate but I stopped him.

"We'll never make it." I say with a shake of my head. "Lis and the others parked the campervan down the road. They'll wait for me as long as they can, if we can make it there then we're sorted." Liam considered it for a moment, and then nodded his head. He squeezed my hand reassuringly, and then we ran. We heard the policemen shout behind us and start to run after us, but we ignored them and kept going. The campervan was in sight now, just a few more seconds and we'd reach it, but the police weren't far behind us.

Using a last burst of energy we just managed to jump into the door before Lis shut it and Donny turned the key and drove off. We lay on the floor panting hard, still holding each other's hands tightly. "Geez, the way you to are panting you'd think you'd been doing it." Lis said with a giggle.

Liam went bright red, but I giggled and sat up. "Wouldn't you like to know." Then I leaned over and kissed him again. He kissed me back, sliding his hand down my back.

"Okay, enough of that. Get a room, this isn't even my campervan. Where are we going anyway, whats the plan?" Lis said, annoyed tone to her voice. Then she clapped her hands together in excitement, and grinned like a little kid in a sweet shop. "Oooh, I know, we'll go to the woods like we did a few weeks ago, that was so much fun. Donny, step on it." She giggles happily and then pulls me off Liam. "That party was good, I see you've been busy, who might this be?"

"Liam, this is my best friend Lis, Lis this is Liam my..." I trailed off. I'd been about to say boyfriend, but could I really say that, we'd only just kissed about half an hour ago. Still it sounded nice in my head, Liam my boyfriend. I grinned a little, wishing I could say it aloud, but instead I went eith the safer option. "Friend." It sounded a little pathetic really, Liam didn't seem to mind though, he just laughed.

"Special sorta friend, huh." Lis giggled. I was about to open my mouth when the van stopped. "Yay. We're here. Come on guys, we've got blankets, booze, and there's definetely some marshmallows left from last time in here somewhere." She rooted around behind her seat and then pulled out a packet triumphantly. "Yay, roasted marshmallow time." We opened the doors of the van and then used some wood and Donny's lighter to get a fire going.

Lis and Donny sat together right by the fire, huddled under a blanket. Donny told us scary stories, while Lis shrieked in terror. Dylan was here too, sat a little further away from us with a lad she'd met at the party. To boys who's names I wasn't too sure on sat on either side of Lis and Donny, playing with their lighters. I sat with Liam.

It felt amazing, to be sat next to the fire with him. One of his arms draped across my shoulders and the other hand interlocked with mine. We swamped ourselves in one of the blankets and listened to Donnys story. After a while Liam leaned over and kissed me again. I would've smiled if his lips weren't on mine, and I kissed him back eagerly. Have I mentioned how great a kisser Liam is. After a while he pulled away and grinned at me. "Would you like to go out with me next weekend?" He asked.

I bit my lip and then smiled. "Sure, but I reckon I'll be grounded after this little escapade." I say with a chuckle. My plan is to get back to the dumping ground before everyone wakes up. I'm not sure how likely this is though, Donny has offered to drive me back early though because he wants to do the same thing.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get round Mike. He likes me really, he just pretends not to." He said with a laugh. Then he sticks a marshmallow on a stick, roasts and offers it to me. I grin as I take it and savour the taste. It tastes even better than last time, sat next to Liam, with him offering it to me. We stay like that for a while. Till eventually one by one people start dropping off to sleep, Liam and I included.

"Ellie. Ellie wake up, come on we've got to go." Somebody is shaking me awake. I don't really want to wake up though, I'm comfortable hear, under this blanket in Liam's arms. "I'm leaving now Ellie!" My eyes flutter open and I check the time on my phone. Shit it's half six. I might just make it if I leave now. I lean over and kiss Liam on the cheek. He seems to stir in his sleep but he doesn't wake up. Then I slip out from under the blanket and jump in the van. Donny turns the key and it rumbles into life, then he speeds of down the track and onto a mainroad. It being november it's still dark, even at this time, so when Donny drops me off at Elm Tree and then speeds off to his own home I'm able to sneak to the house under the cover of the darkness.

I reach the drainpipe and shimmy up it quickly then slip through my bedroom window and smile when I see my clock on the wall. It's ten to six. I made it. I pull all my clothes off and dump them in my wardrobe and then wipe off my makeup, I grab my nighty and slip it on quickly, then I crawl into bed and fall back to sleep within seconds.

I wake up later at about ten o'clock and decide I'd better make an appearence and have some breakfast, hopefully nobody realised I was gone last night. I pull on some jeans, then an old tee shirt and go downstairs. Elektra, Gina and I are the only ones in the kitchen. Elektra's watching Gina closely, and as soon as she leaves the room she turns to me and my uneaten toast and glares at me. "Next time you sneak off in the middle of the night to a party you'd better invite me." She hisses.

"Party, what party?" I say quickly. She rases her eyebrows and I sigh in defeat. "Do Mike and Gina know?" I ask, biting my lip in worry. She just shrugs and continues to spoon porridge into her mouth. My stomach sinks to my toes and I puch the plate of toast away, I feel a little sick. I swear down if I'm grounded for much longer I might actually go mad. My stomach somehow sinks even furthur when Mike pops his head in the doot with an angry look on his face and glares at me.

"Office, now." He says. He's not giving anything away from his voice, but I know they know, why else would they be dragging me into the office. I stand up with a heavy heart and slink down the hallway and into the room. I sit down on one of the chairs, knowing that this is going to be a long, long lecture and I may as well just get used to it. Mike follows me in and shuts the door after him and then turns to look at me in despair. "What did you think you were doing?" He shouts.

"I'm sorry." I say automatically. Although I'm not, last night was possibly the best night of my life.

"Sorry doesn't cut it Ellie. Do you have any idea how stupid that is. You just don't know where to stop do you? If it's not dissapearing for four days it's getting drunk at the park, and if it's not that then it's tattoo's." His voice has raised now, and I open my mouth to argue that I was safe and then close it again in confusion. Wait what did he say? He hasn't mentioned the party yet, and since when did he know about the tattoo. Is that what this is about? "You're underage for a start. Did they even ask for ID. How did you know if it was safe or not, you could have gotten an illness. Tattoo's are illegal for fifteen year olds for a reason Ellie!"

I try not to smile. So he doesn't know about the party. Brilliant. But I have to worm my way out of this one somehow. "And too think I was actually starting to think this might work, I thought you liked it here." He says.

I look up in surprise. What does that mean? "I do like it here, I got this weeks ago Mike I swear, I've been wearing a plaster over it. I got it before I ran off, honestly." Okay maybe that's not quite true, but sometimes it's necessary to tell a lie.

Mike sits down opposite me and runs his hand through his hair. "Look Ellie, I'm not sure this is working out. I wish you could stay here, I do, but while you're here your my responsibility. I have to keep you safe, and I'm beginning to think that I can't keep you safe here." He sas slowly.

"No wait. I like it here. I'm sorry I got a tattoo, I really am Mike. It's only small though. I don't know what I was thinking. Please don't send me someplace else." I say quickly. I can't believe I'm practically begging to stay here. Since when did I even want to stay here.

"I'm not going to Ellie, don't worry. But you need to start following the rules, okay?" He says with a small smile.

"Gotcha, okay. Rules, follow them." I stand up to leave, but before I shut the door I lean back in and smile at him. "Thanks Mike." I say. "I'm eally sorry." He nods and smiles back at me, then I shut the door and head back up to my bedroom.


End file.
